Nicole Kidman’s divorce revenge plunges Keith Urban into ‘midlife crisis’: As friends reveal why his daughters are declaring themselves ‘Team Nicole’… how actress unleashed fresh humiliation

She’s been stacking up the sort of post-divorce wins that make a revenge dress look positively perfunctory.

Indeed, you wouldn’t know that it was only January when Nicole Kidman settled her reportedly acrimonious split from country star Keith Urban.

He had been the one to instigate the break – announced on September 29 last year and detonating nearly two decades of marriage. As sources close to the Australian actress said at the time, Kidman was left utterly ‘blindsided’.

In the months since, however, Hollywood watchers have observed a role reversal for the ages. While Urban, 58, has been away on a world tour that has struggled to generate headlines – let alone draw critical praise – Kidman has been everywhere… and never looked better doing it.

Just days after the divorce announcement, the actress – who in their settlement retained the couple’s Nashville family mansion and secured the lion’s share of custody of their two teenage daughters – was the guest of honor at Paris Fashion Week.

Photographed with Sunday Rose, now 18, and Faith Margaret, 15, by her side at the Chanel show – her masculine white shirt and jeans said it all: I mean business.

A boisterous European summer followed for the 59-year-old, which included dancing at Ibiza raves. (Kidman told British Vogue that she would have dinner at 10.30pm and head out to a club at 1am, wearing glasses and a short dark wig to stay under the radar.)

She also starred alongside rhinestoned drag queens in a Troye Sivan music video and was seen snuggling up to a rumored new love interest – private equity businessman Michael Reinstein – poolside at one of Portofino’s finest hotels. (Look away now, Keith!)

And then there’s Practical Magic 2 – sequel to the 1998 cult-classic supernatural comedy and also starring Sandra Bullock. Released earlier this month, the film surpassed the entire US box office haul of the first movie in a fortnight, allowing Kidman and Bullock to enjoy a particularly playful promotional circuit.

During a September 10 joint interview on influencer Jake Shane’s podcast, Shane read out a letter from an anonymous listener who had written in saying she hated her boyfriend’s music and wanted advice on how to proceed.

Bullock seemed more than happy to provide the set-up.

‘This is a tricky one… Nicole?’ she teased, prompting Kidman and Shane to burst out laughing.

To her credit, however, Kidman managed to keep it diplomatic – and avoid any further potential offense to her musician ex-husband.

‘Find something you like in it [the music]. Give him a compliment. Something! Give him a bone,’ Kidman said.

But perhaps her reluctance to publicly one-up Urban is simply because she doesn’t need to.

As one source put it: ‘Nicole has certainly come out of the divorce smelling like a rose. Her life looks like a fairytale; she has it all. She’s not just beautiful but wicked smart, so no one should be surprised that she handled the divorce so well. She is extremely savvy.’

Kidman’s appearance at the Emmy Awards this month in Los Angeles marked her first time attending the ceremony in nine years.

Dressed again in Chanel, one observer commented that she appeared to be ‘ageing in reverse’.

Inside LA’s Peacock Theater, Kidman – sat in the audience – even managed to unintentionally to become the focus of the opening monologue, with host Mariska Hargitay recreating Kidman’s famous AMC advert, in which the actress memorably says: ‘Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.’

Indeed, it seems everyone who’s anyone wants to be associated with Kidman.

Fast rising Slovak pop star Adela has even released a new single titled ‘Nicole Kidman’ – it’s gone instantly viral and is currently No.11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In August, singer Charli XCX described Kidman as ‘one of our last truly legendary movie stars.’

‘She came to my show in New York when I was on the Brat tour,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t believe she came. Like, the Nicole Kidman is at my show… what the f***?’

So, what’s the recipe to behind this public relations masterclass?

One insider said: ‘Nicole has played the post-divorce game very well by focusing on her family first, establishing herself as a solid single mom. And she is a great mom.’

The insider added that the girls ‘worship her and would do anything she asked’, claiming they are now ‘much closer to their mom than their dad’ – something Urban has reportedly found crushing.

It is a very different position to the one Kidman found herself in after her 2001 divorce from Tom Cruise, when their adopted children Isabella and Connor (now 33 and 31) chose to live primarily with their father – something insiders say remains a source of deep sadness for Kidman.

This time round, the settlement with Urban gives the actress 306 days a year with Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, leaving their father just 59 days – or every other weekend.

In March, a source told the Daily Mail that Urban was feeling lost without his family.

Soon after their split, and before the divorce was finalized, Kidman took the girls to her native Australia for Christmas last year – leaving Urban behind in the States.

Then, in a cover interview for Elle Australia, aspiring model Sunday Rose credited mom Kidman as her ‘biggest inspiration in life’, failing to mention her father.

‘It’s like he doesn’t exist,’ an insider close to Urban complained to Australian magazine New Idea. ‘Keith doesn’t know what to say, but he’s trying to put on a brave front.’

Sources speaking to the Daily Mail at the time strongly rejected any notion that Kidman had turned her daughters against their father.

Instead, they argued that the girls are old enough to see the situation with their own eyes. Their father’s behavior since the divorce, the sources added, had been noted.

‘The girls are definitely Team Nicole – they’re in her corner, they’re hurt and angry on her behalf,’ a source said.

Urban has been linked to several younger women in the country music scene, including 26-year-old singer Karley Scott Collins, who has toured with him – though she has denied any romantic relationship.

‘Keith, surprisingly, has been the more emotional one post-divorce. I don’t think he ever thought he’d find himself divorced at 58. It’s kind of like he’s having a midlife crisis,’ another insider now says. ‘He’s Keith Urban. Girls are literally still throwing themselves at him, yet now he’s single.’

Another more sympathetic source, however, insisted Urban is hardly sitting at home strumming sad country chords into the void.

‘Keith is not suffering, let’s put it that way,’ the source said. ‘He’s had a successful tour thus far and is enjoying being back on the road. Don’t be surprised if he comes out with some sort of breakup ballad.’

Meanwhile, refusing to be drawn on reports of new love for Kidman with businessman Michael Reinstein, another insider said: ‘She’s certainly enjoying this time of discovery and what ‘single’ life looks like in this day and age. She’s been traveling, spending time with family, but now she’s back to work and full throttle, taking project after project. She might even be doing too much and overextending herself.

‘That was one of the problems why her relationship [with Urban] wasn’t sustainable – they both were spending time on the road and it wasn’t healthy for their marriage. They spent a lot of time apart.’

Representatives for Kidman and Urban have been contacted for comment.