Nicole Kidman appears to reference ex-husband Tom Cruise in a rare moment during AFI speech

Kidman has a strained relationship with Cruse and the children they share together, and they were all absent from the glitzy event.

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise

Nicole Kidman appeared to make a rare reference to her tumultuous history with Tom Cruise while she was being honoured with a AFI Life Achievement Award.

Kidman is fiercely private when it comes to her children, both those she shares with her husband Keith Urban and her eldest children, Connor and Isabella, who she shares with Tom Cruise.

Kidman and Cruise adopted Isabella in 1992 and Connor in 1995. During their divorce in 2001, they shared joint custody. At the time, it was reported he children were “loyal to their father” due to their connection to Scientology, and decided to live with him.

It’s unknown how close a relationship the two children share with Kidman, however they failed to make an appearance at their mother’s AFI event, despite reports claiming she had “hoped” they’d be there.

During her speech, Kidman didn’t appear to make mention of Connor and Isabella, but referred to her daughters with Urban as “the loves of my life”.

Cruise, however, did get an apparent shout-out during her speech.

Kidman spoke of working with actors and learning from them, saying: “Some of them you may never meet again and some of them you do meet again. Some of them you have incredible laughter and jokes with, and you cry with; some of them you fall in love with, some of them you marry.”

Tom Cruise shares two adopted children with Kidman, and it's thought they have a much stronger relationship with their father. Picture from AAP Image.

Kidman and Cruise met while working on the 1989 film Days of Thunder and married in 1990.

Kidman last spoke of the children she shares with Cruise during an interview back in 2017.

“They are adults. They are able to make their own decisions. They have made choices to be Scientologists and, as a mother, it’s my job to love them,” she explained.

She went on to insist that she offers them “unconditional love” despite their links with Scientology and their father, Cruise.

“And I am an example of that tolerance and that’s what I believe – that no matter what your child does, the child has love and the child has to know there is available love, and I’m open here. I think that’s so important, because if that is taken away from a child, to sever that in any child, in any relationship, in any family – I believe it’s wrong. So that’s our job as a parent, to always offer unconditional love.”