'I'm like... what!?: Nicole talks marriage to Tom

Nicole Kidman wed Tom Cruise when she was just 23 and he was 28 way back in 1990.

Together the pair adopted daughter Isabella in 1992 and son Connor in 1995, before splitting in 2001.

Nicole, now 41, is reflecting on her choice to wed at a young age by comparing herself to Taylor Swift. Wait, what?

She tells Red magazine: "I was so young when I got married. I look back now and I'm like, 'What?' You look at Taylor Swift, I mean how old is she? She's 26. I had two kids by the time I was 27 and I'd been married for four years. But that's what I wanted."

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Nicole, who got hitched for the second time in 2006, has two daughters, Faith and Sunday Rose, with her country music star husband Keith Urban.

"It was really up and down for the first three months," she admits of her second marriage. "We've been through a lot for 10 years. And we're stronger than ever. I say that while touching wood, and no way in a boastful way. I just say it with wonder. Absolute wonder."

She continues: "When you're older, you've been through things, you've made mistakes. So you come into [a second marriage] still giddy, but wanting it to last.

"We always consider the 'us'. We say, 'Is this going to be good for us?' It's the simplest phrase, but it works."

She adds that being a mum-of-four is a very emotional challenge, but she is very maternalistic in nature.

"My husband says I'm 'deeply maternal'. I like to take care of people. It brings me a lot of joy," she says.

The Paddington actress continues: "Motherhood is about the journey ... There are going to be incredible peaks and valleys, whether you are an adopting mother or a birth mother. What a child needs is love.

"It's not necessarily great for a child to have an intensely emotional mother. And I don't want to be a helicopter parent so I'm trying to ... balance the intensity of the love. It's really hard."

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