Kidman confirms pregnancy

Nicole Kidman is pregnant, her publicist has confirmed.

The 40-year-old actress and her husband, country singer Keith Urban, “are expecting a baby”, publicist Catherine Olim said in a brief statement.

“The couple are thrilled,” Ms Olim added.

Kidman is currently at home in Sydney, Australia, where she has been working on Baz Luhrmann’s epic romance, 'Australia'.

She was due to start filming for director Stephen Daldry’s post-war drama 'The Reader' later this month, but her Australian publicist Wendy Day said she understood Kidman had to withdraw from the film because of the pregnancy.

Speculation has been increasing in recent weeks over Kidman’s maternal condition. Dozens of paparazzi have been tracking her, focusing on her “baby bump”.

“For years I’ve seen speculation and for years it’s never been right, so I didn’t think it was right this time,” Ms Day said. “And then she’s just rung this morning.”

The baby would be the first for the couple. She already has two adopted children – Isabella, 14, and Connor, 12 – with ex-husband Tom Cruise.

Kidman recently confided to Vanity Fair that she had a miscarriage early on in her relationship with Cruise, leading them to adopt.

“I feel enormous love for whoever my children’s birth parents are,” Kidman told the Ladies’ Home Journal in 2006.

“And if my children choose to go find them at some stage, I can’t wait. Because – it’s the weirdest thing – I actually feel (they’re) very connected to us as a big, strange family, and whether they choose to search for them or not, who knows.”

Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001 after 10 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalised later that year.

Kidman won an Oscar for her role in the 2002 film 'The Hours'.

Urban, a singer and guitarist raised in Australia, won a Grammy in 2006 for best male country vocal.