Nicole Kidman announces unexpected career change for emotional reason

Nicole Kidman has had an incredibly successful acting career, starring in the likes of Moulin Rouge and Big Little Liars, but now she's after a new career.

The Australian actress has been through a lot of changes recently in the wake of her split from husband, Keith Urban, after 19 years together, plus a family bereavement.

Kidman came to give a talk to students at San Francisco University as part of their Silk Speakers programme, after she had to reschedule last year following the news of her impending divorce.

She said she was 'thrilled' to be speaking to the students and told them all about her new career path, which came about for a very emotional reason.

Kidman's beloved mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, died in 2024 at the age of 84, not long after Nicole had arrived at the Venice Film Festival.

Nicole Kidman has revealed a new career change (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

The Babygirl director and star had to leave the festival early following the sad news, and released a statement explaining that her 'beautiful, brave mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, has just passed', and said she was 'heartbroken'.

Inspired by the heartbreak and grief, Kidman has decided to learn to be a 'death doula'.

She told the students: "As my mother was passing, she was lonely, and there was only so much the family could provide,"

The star added: “Between my sister, and I, we have so many children and our careers and our work, but we wanted to take care of her because my father, wasn’t in the world anymore.”

Kidman told the students about her mother's final days, and how she frequently found herself thinking “I wish there were these people in the world that were there to sit impartially and just provide solace and care."

After doing some research, she found out about death doulas, and decided that was the path for her, calling it part of her 'expansion' but acknowledged it might sound 'a little weird' to the uninitiated.

She explained "So that’s part of my expansion and one of the things I will be learning."

Kidman is pursuing a new career path inspired by the loss of her mother (Photo by Cindy Ord/WireImage)

According to the International End-of-Life Doula Association, doulas aren't just for assisting with births and new arrivals, they can also specialise in death too, and help the individual and their loved one when the time is near, as well as after.

They are described as 'non-medical professionals' who help people to 'navigate death, loss, and mortality.'

Following her bereavement and the breakdown of her marriage, Kidman told the students about how she's been trying to balance everything.

She answered a question about what the hardest part of her job is, and she said it was 'taking care of my health and taking care of my mental health and being able to show up and give it my all, and not ever coasting.'

Kidman said it was also something her mother wanted her to do, as she recalled the last conversation she had with Janelle for CBS Sunday news: "The final words my mama said, which I didn’t know were gonna be the final words … I was going to get on a plane and go back to see her."

“And she was like, ‘Maybe wait a minute because I think you just need to take care of yourself right now, Nicky,

“So, I’m doing that more. And I say that to other people in the world, and particularly women. I think we tend not to take care of ourselves," the added.