Do you remember when Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise were the Hollywood "it" couple everybody obsessed over? In a recent interview with New York magazine, the Australian star remembered her previous marriage, and the benefits it brought her.

“Being married to Tom Cruise at 22 is something I’m always reluctant to talk about, because I’m married now to the man who is my great love [Keith Urban], and it almost feels disrespectful," Kidman said. “That said, I got married very young, but it definitely wasn’t power for me — it was protection.”

Cruise and Kidman met in 1990 on the set of their film 'Days of Thunder;' she was 22 years old at the time. Kidman continued to explain how her marriage shielded her from the darker sides of the entertainment industry.

“I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed. I would work, but I was still very much cocooned. So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it’s almost like I had to grow up,” she said.

Kidman spoke candidly about the abuse women face inside Hollywood and around the world. As an actor, she has been able to harness the raw emotions from past relationships, hardships, and losses she has faced. 

"I’m open and raw. I want to have my well of experience and emotion tapped into, used — and I’m not just talking about sexual harassment,” she said.