The 56-year-old singer has been married to ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ actress Nicole, also 56, since 2006 but as his wife was given the AFI Life Achievement Award in honour of her successful career, he revealed that he thought she was a “real-life princess” when he first started to pursue her.
“I was trying to play it cool, but inside I felt like I’d snuck into the royal ball simply because Nic had such a truly otherworldly aura about her. I felt a bit like I was meeting a real-life princess. I felt a bit like I was meeting a real-life princess.
“And despite all of that, I did manage to get her phone number on a tiny piece of paper. I was scared. I was nervous to call her. I did, as you probably figured out, pluck up the courage to finally call her.”
The singer also posted a tribute to his wife on Instagram, putting her name alongside all the other actors that have shared the AFI honour in the past, including Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and more.
“Babygirl, I’m so proud of you, and as much as I could come off sounding like the biased husband, I’ll let the list of previous honorees do all of the talking for me. What a list!”, he posted.
Nicole, mother to Sunday, 15, and Faith, 13, with Keith, as well as Bella, 31, and 29-year-old Connor with her ex-husband Tom Cruise, spoke ahead of the ceremony where she admitted it was good to be able to have her entire family around her for a change.
Nicole was joined on the red carpet by her husband, daughters, niece Sybella Hawley, sister Antonia Kidman and her brother-in-law Craig Marran at the honorific event.
She said: “It’s beautiful to have a family to be able to go and want to share this with you, because you don’t get to do that. A lot of the times, if you get invited to the Academy Awards, you get one ticket extra.
“So the idea of being able to have your family come to something like this is really exciting.”
