Nicole Kidman felt her life was "empty" after she won an Oscar.

The 46-year-old actress picked up the Best Actress prize for her role in 2002 movie The Hours and though she was delighted to receive the prestigious accolade, it magnified the struggles in her personal life following her divorce from Tom Cruise in 2001.

"[Winning an Oscar] can show you the emptiness of your own life, which is kind of what it showed me. I was having professional success and my personal life was struggling," Nicole - who has adopted children Isabella, 20, and Conor, 18, with Tom - told Australia's Harper's Bazaar magazine.

These days, the Grace of Monaco actress is happily married to country singer Keith Urban and she says their quiet life in Tennessee with daughters Sunday, five, and Faith, two, means she much prefers to take on smaller movie roles: "I'm not carrying the whole film, and it's not six to seven months' work like Moulin Rouge! I get to come for three weeks and then go home."