EXCLUSIVE: Nicole Kidman Opens Up About Painful Childhood Stutter
Nicole Kidman opens up about her painful childhood stutter and how the experience affected her early life.
Sept. 22 2026, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
Nicole Kidman has revealed a painful trauma that made her childhood painful – the stutter that plagued her as a little girl left her unable to talk and even has repercussions to this day, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
"I'd try to speak and it wouldn't come out," admitted the 59-year-old Aussie.
Kidman Opens Up About Childhood Stutter
Nicole Kidman said her childhood stutter made it difficult to express her thoughts.
In the past, the Oscar winner has linked her early speech impediment to the intense shyness she still sometimes experiences.
"I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness," she has said. "So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself. I don't like going to a party by myself."
But now she is coming clean about how the stutter also kept her from expressing her inner thoughts, and how it has even shaped some of her approach to acting.
Even her Practical Magic 2 costar Sandra Bullock was shocked to hear the long-suppressed news.
Bullock Stunned by Kidman’s Stutter Confession
Sandra Bullock was surprised to learn her 'Practical Magic 2' costar had a childhood stutter.
"I never knew you had a stutter," Bullock exclaimed. "How old were you?"
"Um, 4, 5, 6. Through those ages," said Kidman. "I would know exactly what I wanted to say and I'd be almost excited to say, but it wouldn't, it would just take time to come out."
She said the disconnect between thoughts and words still haunts her from time to time but that, as an adult, she has developed coping mechanisms.
"Sometimes I'll have like a second or two of it, but I've learned a technique, and I've learned how to manage it," she said, adding it is "probably why I speak softly."
Kidman Reveals Upside to Childhood Struggle
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Learning to pause before speaking gave Kidman a technique she considers useful in life.
But Kidman insists there was an upside to the experience.
"When I was little, everyone would always say stop, pause, think about what you want to say, and then say it," she said.
"So because I would try to speak and then it wouldn't come out, and so the stop and pause. So that's actually quite good for life too."
