Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban heading back home to Sydney after her father Antony Kidman’s sudden death
NICOLE Kidman and her husband Keith Urban are heading back home to Sydney to be with family after the shock death of patriarch Professor Antony Kidman. Her sister Antonia arrived earlier today.
KEITH Urban today spoke of the Kidman family’s “deep state of grief” at the sudden death of family patriarch Antony Kidman.
Urban cancelled an appearance at a charity concert to rush back to his wife’s side at their Nashville residence.
“I’m so very sorry that I cannot perform this weekend,” Urban wrote on his Facebook page.
“We are in a deep state of grief at the passing of Nic’s father and are heading to Australia to be with family.
“We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for their love, prayers and support through this devastating loss.”
Nicole’s grief-stricken sister Antonia has already rushed to their mother’s side after Professor Kidman, in his 70s, had been visiting her in Singapore.
It is believed he suffered a fatal heart attack at the Tanglin Club, where he had been staying.
Antonia arrived with her children at the family’s Greenwich home in North Sydney shortly before midday today.
The respected psychologist, who worked at University of Technology, Sydney, had flown to Singapore on Thursday to spend a week with Antonia, her financier husband Craig Marran and her six children.
Nicole was in Nashville when she learned of her father’s death around midnight, local time.
Professor Kidman is believed to have collapsed in a common dining area following breakfast. His wife of 50 years, Janelle, was not with him at the time but was at their home.
A spokesman for UTS, where Professor Kidman was director of the Health Psychology Unit, said: “The university’s academic community is deeply saddened at the news of Mr Kidman’s passing. Professor Kidman had been a senior researcher, an academic at the University of Technology Sydney for 40 years.
“He was much loved by staff and students alike and will be deeply missed.”
A source who worked with Professor Kidman was reeling: “We don’t know how to deal with this or how to digest the fact he’s gone.”
Father to Nicole, 47, and Antonia, 44, and a grandfather to 10, Professor Kidman was the patriarch to a close-knit family.
Antonia has been in Singapore with her husband, the managing director of Credit Capital Markets Global Banking, since they married in 2010.
Professor Kidman was last photographed publicly at the Easter Show in Sydney entertaining Nicole’s two youngest daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith.
In December last year family members gathered in Sydney to celebrate the 50-year marriage of Professor Kidman and his wife Janelle.
In June, a beaming Nicole walked the red carpet with her father and her music star husband Urban at the Swisse Celebrate Life Ball in Melbourne. At the time Professor Kidman proudly wore his Order of Australia medal, which he accepted for his services to health.
In many interviews during Nicole’s Hollywood career, the actress Nicole spoke of her father as a “great man”.
In an interview, she said: “He’s a great father, I can call him at three in the morning and he’s there for me.
“By the time I was a teenager I had developed skills as a writer, and my father encouraged me to think about a career in journalism.”
When she split from US superstar Tom Cruise in 2001, Kidman spoke of how her father supported her: “I needed to reach out to my dad, and he was wonderful. He stood by me, comforted me, showed me, a man can be strong, dignified and loving.”
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