Nicole Kidman Feels ‘So Lucky’ for 18 Year-Marriage to Keith Urban: ‘My Deep, Deep Love’ (Exclusive)

The Oscar winner married the country music star in 2006 and the pair have been madly in love ever since

There are good matches, and then there’s Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s kind of love.

After meeting at an event in L.A. in 2005 and marrying just over a year later, the pair have been steadfast in their mutual devotion ever since. “I’m so lucky that I have Keith who’s just my love, my deep, deep love,” the Oscar winner tells PEOPLE in an interview for the magazine’s 50th anniversary special issue.

Kidman and Urban, who are raising their two daughters, Sunday Rose, 15, and Faith Margaret, 13, in the Nashville area, fell fast for each other in the months following the chance meeting.

“It was my [38th] birthday, and he stood outside with gardenias at 5 a.m. on my stoop in New York,” Kidman shared with PEOPLE in 2019. “That is when I went, ‘This is the man I hope I get to marry.'” Calling that time “pretty intense,” the Expats star sensed fairly quickly she’d met “the one.”

Nicole Kidman Reflects on 25 Years in Hollywood and ‘Lucky’ Life with Her Kids and ‘Deep Love’ Keith Urban
“I believed by that point he was the love of my life,” she said. “Maybe that’s because I am deeply romantic, or I’m an actress, or I have strong faith as well, but I just believed, ‘Oh, okay, here he is.'”

The two married a year later at a romantic wedding in Australia and have made sure to spend minimal time apart over the last 18 years. Despite very busy work schedules, Kidman and Urban prioritize family while managing thriving careers.

“I remember talking to somebody once and they were like, ‘What do you do?’ I’m like, ‘Well, primarily I have my family, I raise my kids, and I work’,” she says.

“I’m raising a soon to be 16-year-old and a 13-year-old who are divine. They’re just lovely people and I’m so lucky that I have Keith… That gives me the ability to go and do whatever I have to do because I know where I can come back.”

To mark their 17th wedding anniversary last summer, Kidman shared a black-and-white snapshot of the pair.

Dressed to the nines, the smitten duo can be seen leaning in close to one another, as Kidman sweetly touches Urban’s face. Kidman captioned the photo: “Happy Anniversary my Love.”

For his part, Urban told PEOPLE in 2019 of Kidman: “I could sum up Nic as a wife, mother and human being in three words: She’s all heart!”