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Connor & Isabella: were people too quick to judge Nicole Kidman?

For more than 10 years, Nicole Kidman has bitten her tongue when accused of being a rotten mother because she ‘abandoned’ her kids Isaballa and Conner. But now, it seems, the truth may be coming to light.

There are news reports today that Nicole didn’t walk away from the children she adopted with Tom Cruise but instead was deliberately cut out of her children’s lives by Tom and the Church of Scientology?

News.com.au reports:

“Katie Holmes wouldn’t want to be holding her breath waiting for a show of sisterly support from Nicole Kidman following her split from Tom Cruise.

While Oscar-winning actress Kidman may feel some empathy for the woman who replaced her in the matrimonial bed in 2006, Kidman has never publicly challenged or defied Cruise or his Scientology sect. Not during the couple’s 10-year marriage and not after it ended in 2001.

Not even, remarkably enough, when Cruise took primary custody of the children, in effect removing her from their lives and allowing them to be raised in a mysterious sect which recognises Cruise as, if not one of its leaders, its most prominent salesman and advocate.

Mamamia previously ran a post by Women’s Weekly Associate Editor Bryce Corbett about why Nicole Kidman was one of only a few celebrities who inspire vitriol from other women.

One of the overwhelming reasons why from commenters was her relationship with her two eldest children – 19-year-old Isabella and 17-year-old Connor – whom she adopted with her first husband, Tom Cruise.

In his post for Mamamia, Bryce wrote:

“She’s abandoned her children!” the armchair experts cry. But what do we really know about the relationship Nicole has with Isabella and Connor? Or the post-divorce agreement she has with Tom, for that matter? What do we know about the access Nicole has to her own children, the forces that are at play and the pain it may be causing her?

During our interview, I asked Nicole about her eldest children and she spoke frankly about them, her love for them and why she resolutely refuses to discuss their lives in public.

And this seems to be part of the problem. Because she refuses to divulge the particulars of her private life, and because the celebrity-infused culture in which we live has conditioned us to believe every famous person is contractually-obliged to share every detail about their life whenever we demand it, we get annoyed. And into the vacuum left by Nicole’s silence we pour our own fanciful theories.

Nicole Kidman, through the years:

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Nicole Kidman has attracted a lot of criticism over the years, does reading this make you feel more sympathetic toward her? Do you think that Nicole Kidman may have been prevented from seeing her adopted children? What do you think the future holds for Suri Cruise and custody arrangements between Tom and Katie Holmes?