Nicole Kidman Was 'Running' from Life After Tom Cruise Split

Nicole Kidman is all smiles while heading into the Women in the World Summit held at Cadogan Hall on Friday (October 9) in London, England.

The 48-year-old actress opened up at the event about the years following her split from Tom Cruise in 2001, in which she got critical acclaim for her film work and an Oscar for her performance in The Hours.

“I was running from my life at that time,” Nicole said (via E! News). “I wasn’t able to handle the reality of my life and as an actor, you have this wonderful thing where you can go and get lost in somebody else’s life and become somebody else for a period of time. And when I look back on it, I really see that. Out of that came work that sort of was applauded and so that was an interesting thing for me.”

“I then sort of embraced my own life and I got myself together and it took me a number of years and during that time, I worked a lot,” she added. “The work was a great place for me to exist and then that culminated in winning an Oscar.”

Nicole also opened up about having an “epiphany” after the big win.

“I was sitting in the Beverly Hills Hotel and it was all extraordinary and I was the loneliest I’ve ever been,” Nicole concluded. “And that was a very strange thing to have happened and it was a fantastic thing to have happened because I was jolted out of this I suppose need or desire to say, ‘This is gonna heal me’ and it didn’t. And then I went, ‘I need to really hone in on what I want as a woman and for my life.’”

Also pictured inside: Nicole wearing a black dress while heading into the theater for a performance in Photograph 51 on Thursday night (October 8) in London.