Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban’s Celebrity Divorce Explained

[Source: Popcorned Planet]

Celebrity lawyer Christopher C. Melcher, who is ranked as a best family law attorney in Los Angeles, California, explains Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s celebrity divorce.

Andy Signore:

Breaking celebrity news, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have separated. We have Celebrity Divorce lawyer, Christopher Melcher, here to break down what might’ve happened.

Welcome to Popcorned Planet. I am Andy Signore. Sad news, but always excited to have Christopher Melcher back. Welcome Chris. How you doing?

Christopher Melcher:

I’m doing really, really well and I love to be back on the channel and look forward to reading comments and stuff from folks again because I’ve been away too long. It’s been crazy busy for me, but things are going really, really well. So thank you for having me.

Andy Signore:

Things could get even busier, it looks like, Chris. When a celebrity couple breaks, I got to text my man Chris right away. I’m like, “What’s going on?” Now, to be fair, we don’t know a lot yet. This just broke with TMZ and I was kind of shocked. My wife was shocked. She’s like, “Oh my God, get a video out there quick.” And I thought, let’s react to this because this couple’s been together for a long time and I thought, while we don’t know what happened, with your expertise, for those who don’t know, Christopher Melcher is a celebrity divorce lawyer to the stars. And you’ve dealt with a lot of these cases. We’re guessing here, we don’t know the specifics of this personal case, but when I saw this headline, you said something interesting because I’m reading this. Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, separated. Multiple sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ they’ve been separated… They’ve been living apart since the beginning of summer.

We’re told Nicole has been taking care of the two children, holding the family together through this difficult time since Keith has been gone. And as for why we’re told it’s one-sided, Nicole did not want the separation and has been trying to save the marriage. This was echoed over on People Magazine as well. They showed that she recently had a photo with them lovingly from 13 weeks ago. You said something interesting to me, which I didn’t even think of. This could be Nicole’s team getting ahead of it already to point where things are. What is your take on how the narrative is already playing in the media?

Nicole Kidman’s Narrative in Her Divorce

Christopher Melcher:

Sure. So you have a celebrity couple. They’re obviously going to have their advisors and people here, maybe well-intentioned, but sometimes there are leaks that are done to paint a narrative of what’s going on because they know it’s out here. Now, according to the reporting, they’re separated in the early summer. So you’re thinking June, and here it is the end of September. So over three months of separation, he reportedly has been spending time in Tennessee. So this would have been their test period to saying, “Okay, is this really it for us?” And so it’s sounding like, yeah, they’ve gone through the test period, they’ve decided it’s over. And there’s enough time in there potentially for them to have even struck a deal on some major points like time sharing with the kids or property division.

These type of things may have been sorted out enough where they could say, “Okay, let’s go public with the story now. And we know we’re not going to fight at this point because we’ve already resolved most of the stuff.”

That is a very common move that we see in celebrity breakups. And then we do see some people getting ahead of themselves because, again, they have two publicity teams who are now potentially adverse to each other or at least independent of each other. And maybe somebody’s coming out there wanting to say, “Oh, she didn’t want the divorce.” And when I’ve been on the receiving end of those type of stories, it’s very upsetting because it’s like, “Hey, we all promise we’re going to do this in a dignified and quiet way. And here I’m seeing these stories and what are we supposed to do now? Go and counter this with our own leaks.”

Andy Signore:

Yeah, it’s interesting because here’s People Magazine as well, sources close to Kidman. A source tells People exclusively, “Nicole’s sister has been a rock and the entire Kidman family has come together to support one another. She didn’t want this,” adds the source. “She has been fighting to save the marriage.” So we have this Nicole source speaking to People, TMZ. And yeah, as I’ve learned through you in our reporting, that’s usually not by accident, right? Because again, if this was some secret thing they were working on, which we didn’t know about until it leaked, to immediately have the sources confirm it. And no sources from Keith coming out there to share it as well, this does seem like it’s damage control in a way. And I guess that’s part of this. What do you advise someone like Keith, if you’re his attorney or his person helping this, what is Keith now supposed to do if this has already been leaked out beyond what he was prepared for?

Christopher Melcher:

Yeah. So like I say, I’ve been on the receiving end of this one. If that’s what’s happening here, we don’t know, but it would be, hey, reaching out to the other side and saying, “Look, this was not the game plan here, and we want to correct this or we want to see it corrected, or we’re going to have to come out with our own information.”

Joint Statements in Divorce

And so, sometimes that’ll work where they’ll have some now joint statement. So sometimes we’ll see somebody posting up on their social media some joint statement kind of like, oh, there’s been all these vicious rumors and all this and here’s what’s really happening, the conscious uncoupling statement, and there’ll be no further comments here by us.

So we might see that to kind of cure this thing. If it’s going to start getting nasty, then we might see Keith coming out saying, “No, no.” Or, “Yeah, I wanted out because there were reasons why I wanted to end the marriage. Here are the reasons.” You could see that. Or sometimes you may just take the high road and say, “Look, I’ll take my lumps. I’m not going to say a word and she can paint whatever narrative she wants of me.”

Andy Signore:

Yeah, I mean that’s always the best because they have two kids, 14 and 17, so still kids, one more year I guess, of custody for the oldest, but still a few years left for the other. And obviously, that’s going to need to be sorted out, I imagine. So this could become… Your experience seems to think usually you get this sorted out. So if we don’t get a joint statement within the next day or so, which I imagine they’re going to now press to try to get, I got to say it’s odd… Whether these sources really are from Nicole’s team or not, it’s odd that anybody from either side would comment before a joint statement comes out. It seems like those sources imply to me, at least you tell me, well, if they’re real sources, yeah, we’re getting ahead of this before the twin statement comes out as sort of damage control.

I mean, shouldn’t the joint statement have been… If People comes to comment for Nicole Kidman, let’s say that’s happening, we’re speculating, wouldn’t they then go to Keith and say, “Hey, they’re asking. Let’s do a joint statement or something.” This seems to imply there’s a little bit of a difference of opinion in my point of view. No?

PR Teams in Divorce

Christopher Melcher:

There might be, but my guess is it’s more likely it’s a lack of coordination or communication between the two sides’ PR teams. So they’re just like, a lot happening, obviously very personal and hurtful, I’m sure for the couple to have to go through this and have it exposed. And then, so they may just be coming to grips here. It’s like, “Hey, the summers over, are we over?” And so the couple may have just figured this out, or one declaring, no, I’m not going back to the marriage. Now their PR teams are hearing this, there’s lawyers being hired, and then somebody’s maybe jumped the gun and saying, “Look, this doesn’t look great. I don’t want a bunch of rumors here, so I’m just going to go out with my story that Nicole wanted to save the marriage.” And then now Keith’s thinking, “Wow, okay, I don’t like this. It makes me look bad. I want to correct it.”

So my guess is that’s all it is, a lack of coordination and communication. Now the statement, if this is authorized statement coming from Nicole’s side, now she’s saying, “I want to keep the marriage together.” How would that come into play? So Keith would be the one saying, “I want to leave the marriage.” So is that because he found somebody else and he fell in love with her and she’s saying, “Hey, I’ll forgive you for that, but come back.” That’s one kind of scenario we see. Could it be that she cheated on him and he’s saying, “I won’t forgive you and you may want to keep the marriage together, but the trust is broken.” So there’s so many different angles on this thing, but I do think at this point with this reporting, they’re going to have to get ahead of this. Otherwise, all these… Look, we’re going to have all the sleuths going through all their social media posts and looking at photos. Who’s that person in the background? What’s going on here? Where have they been staying? And it just becomes this vicious cycle, so hopefully they get ahead of it.

Andy Signore:

And I was just looking also, no official statement from either a time of taping. This is still sort of out there, but surprising news. Again, they were together for 19 years in Hollywood. That’s long, isn’t it, Chris? That’s a long couple. So they’re one of the sort of the last big ones out there. She’d previously been through a divorce with Tom Cruise. I think he was as well. It doesn’t say, but I can’t remember. I don’t remember his history. But clearly, they’re pros at this. So I imagine they’ve already lawyered up, you would think, correct? How quickly does one lawyer up in a situation like this?

Christopher Melcher:

Yeah, pretty quick. I mean, that’s the kind of easier part, but lawyers are typically not tasked to give advice on whether the relationship should endure or not or break up. Usually by the time they’re talking to a divorce lawyer, they’ve already made up their mind and we’re just in the processing business here of dealing with that decision.

Andy Signore:

Last question. This is such a damage control role because there’s so many emotions and things you’ve got to deal with. I’ve been there, but do you work with PR firms as well? Have you figured out how to navigate that sort of line of crisis PR/legally what’s in our best interest to ensure you get what you want? How do you often navigate that and what do you suggest for them as they’re facing this?

Christopher Melcher:

Yeah, so I think that coordination is necessary. Sometimes, some people have a much better PR machine in place, and so now as the lawyers and accountants and stuff like that, we can integrate with those folks and understand what the timeline of this is going to be. Other celebs that I’ve dealt with are in a complete state of disarray and they have no cognizable plan happening here for their PR. So the thing that we can do as a professional is talk about the timeline and how long is this going to take? What do we have to file in court that’s going to be public? What can we do that’s private? Then I know, as you know, too, it’s like, anyone files something in court, it’s basically a check the box form and everyone’s saying, “Oh my God, why did they check that box?” Or, “Why didn’t they mention a prenup? Does that mean there’s no prenup?” We saw that with JLo’s last divorce.

Learning from Messages in Divorce

So all this speculation. So a lot of that we can manage upfront. Lesson though for all of us is, these are highly personal decisions and it affects our friends and family and work colleagues, and it is a good idea, celeb or not, to think through these things and saying, “Okay, as a couple, soon to be former couple, what message are we sending? What information are we going to reveal about this and what are we promising not to do?” And I think that’s a lesson all of us can take.

Andy Signore:

Yeah, well said. And as we always covered, you’re always… It’s always the kids. That’s the responsibility. That’s what they should be focused on, making sure these kids are taken care of and not in a bad spot in the press. So hopefully this is not a mess. We’ll keep you posted, but as this broke, I want to let you know since Chris was available. Always a pleasure, sir. Please make sure to follow Chris over on Twitter/X at @CA_Divorce.

Follow him and we’ll keep you privy to this and see. Make your predictions of the comments down below. Before you hit the subscribe though, hit the bell for alerts. Smash that thumbs up as well. Leave your comments. Obviously, we wish them well, the kids well, but do you think this is going to be smooth sailing or could this turn into another Angelina, Brad Pitt scenario? Let us know what you think in the comments down below and stay tuned for more.