Keith Urban has been sober for nearly two decades after going to rehab for three months just a few weeks after marrying his wife, Nicole Kidman. Now that his addiction problems are a thing of the past, both he and Kidman have spoken out about their experiences: Urban on the path to sobriety and Kidman on how to be there for someone on that journey. Keep reading for more information.
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Keith Urban's Drug & Alcohol Addiction
Keith Urban struggles with addiction—back in the early days of his career, he abused alcohol and hard drugs regularly. "I didn't seem able to stop," Keith said of this time in his life. "I'd go to sleep, wake up a couple of hours later, go at it again, drinking to take the edge off." He actually did a stint in rehab in 1998, but unfortunately it didn't stick—until he met Nicole.
The same year that Kidman and Urban got hitched (2006), Urban spent three months in rehab, trying to get sober. And he was successful! He says he owes it all to his beautiful bride: "I was spiritually awoken with her," he says, "I use the expression 'I was born into her,' and that's how I feel. And for the first time in my life, I could shake off the shackles of addiction."
Nicole Kidman Opens Up About Marriage To Keith Urban
Nicole recently opened up about her perspective on Keith's journey to sobriety. For her, the hardest part was accepting that she couldn't fix him—he had to fix himself. "It's a massive lesson because as much as I thought I can do all the work for him, I can make him better, I can take it away, I can help...at some point you just have to say, 'I love you and I'm here when you decide to do the work, And if you don't, then that's it,'" she explained in on The Jess Cagle Interview.
"You cannot save a human being, they have to save themselves," she continued. "But you can love them and give them enormous support and love." And that's just what they did. The couple are coming up on 20 years of marriage, and Urban has been sober for 18 of them.
