Nicole Kidman has said her marriage to Tom Cruise gave her “protection” from sexual harassment.

The Australian actress tied the knot with the Mission: Impossible star in 1990 after they starred together in the film Days Of Thunder.

The marriage to the established Hollywood actor came at the beginning of Kidman’s career and in an essay for New York magazine’s women and power series, the 51-year-old revealed the relationship helped her avoid becoming a victim of harassment.

Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman has opened up on her marriage to fellow Hollywood star Tom Cruise (Matt Crossick/PA)

She said: “I got married very young, but it definitely wasn’t power for me — it was protection. I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed.”

Hollywood has since been engulfed by claims of mass sexual harassment, with several high-profile actresses coming forward to say they had been attacked and the #MeToo movement rising to prominence.

Kidman added: “Of course I’ve had #MeToo moments — since I was little! But do I want to expose them in an article? No. Do they come out in my work? Absolutely.”

Kidman and Cruise, who during their marriage adopted two children, Isabella, now 25, and son Connor, now 23, divorced in 2001.

Kidman said their separation forced her to “grow up”.

She wrote: “I would work, but I was still very much cocooned. So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it’s almost like I had to grow up.”

Kidman, an Oscar winner and star of films including Moulin Rouge!, The Hours and Cold Mountain, married country music singer Keith Urban in 2006.

They have two daughters, Sunday, 10, and Faith, seven.