Australian actress Nicole Kidman has described the attention surrounding her marriage to Tom Cruise as intoxicating, but insists the actor wasn’t the love of her life.

Kidman and Cruise shocked Hollywood by splitting in 2001 after 11 years of marriage.

Their marriage was subject to much media scrutiny at the time and Kidman has likened their situation to the current media interest in Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s relationship.

She says being at the centre of the media storm with Cruise was exhilarating and deeply romantic.

“There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you’re in that bubble, it’s very intoxicating, because it’s just the two of you,” Kidman has told the latest edition of Vanity Fair magazine.  

“And there is only one other person that’s going through it. So it brings you very close, and it’s deeply romantic. I’m sure Brad and Angelina have that – because there’s nobody else that understands it except that person who’s sleeping right next to you.”

The Oscar winner is now married to Keith Urban and says the Australian country music star is the love of her life.

“With no disrespect to what I had with Tom, I’ve met my great love now. And I really did not know if that was going to happen. I wanted it, but I didn’t want it for a while, because I didn’t want to jump from one relationship to another. I had a lot of time alone, which was really, really good, because I was a child, really, when I got married (to Cruise). And I needed to grow up.”

Kidman and Urban wed in 2006. They now have two daughters together, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret .

The actress is also mum to her adopted children Isabella and Connor Cruise.