Nicole Kidman recalls being 'happily married' to Tom Cruise while portraying infidelity

Nicole Kidman is remembering the happy times in her marriage with ex-husband Tom Cruise, almost two decades after their split.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Nicole Kidman recalled working with Tom Cruise in the 1999 sexual drama "Eyes Wide Shut," in which they played a married couple dealing with infidelity, and revealed they were "happily married" at the time, unlike the public perception.

When asked if portraying an unfaithful couple in the film brought up any "negative feelings" in her and Cruise's marriage, Kidman said: "That fits the narrative that people came up with, but I definitely didn't see it like that. We were happily married through that. We would go go-kart racing after those scenes. We'd rent out a place and go racing at 3 in the morning."

"I don't know what else to say. Maybe I don't have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I'm not willing to," the actress added. She also recalled her and Tom's experience of working with director Stanley Kubrick on the movie which was filmed two years prior to their divorce. Kubrick died at the age of 70 shortly after the film was completed.

"We loved working with him. We shot that for two years. We had two kids and were living in a trailer on the lot primarily, making spaghetti because Stanley liked to eat with us sometimes. We were working with the greatest filmmaker and learning about our lives and enjoying our lives on set," the mother-of-four said.

The 53-year-old first met Cruise in November 1989, while filming "Days of Thunder." The pair tied the knot a year later on Christmas Eve in Telluride, Colorado. They adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane Cruise (born 1992), and a son, Connor Antony (born 1995).

They announced their separation after a decade of marriage on Feb. 5, 2001, with the "Mission Impossible" star filing for divorce two days later citing irreconcilable differences." Their divorce was finalised in August that year.

Kidman and Cruise remained cordial and co-parented their two children. Around five years after their separation, the "Big Little Lies" actress married New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban with whom she has two daughters- Sunday Rose, 12, and Faith Margaret, 10.

The same year, Tom Cruise got married to actress Katie Holmes, but split in 2012 after six years of marriage. The former couple share a 14-year-old daughter, Suri Cruise.