|  It is official Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman are pregnant. It is now official that they are expecting their first child.
WHEN Nicole Kidman returned home to begin filming Baz Luhrmann's romantic outback film Australia last year, she knew she was beginning the next chapter in her life.
With her country crooning husband Keith Urban by her side, Australia's leading lady embarked on a journey of self-discovery, finding her homeland roots again after years living abroad, while remaining committed to starting a family.
Now, after keeping a lid on one of the most anticipated pregnancies in the world, Kidman's fairytale chapter is playing out with a perfect trifecta -- marrying, conceiving and fulfilling her dream of starring in a blockbuster on Australian shores. "I think you reach certain stages and certain chapters in your life and I think this is just one in my life," Kidman said last month.
Eighteen months after tying the knot in a lavish sunset church ceremony on Sydney's northern beaches, Kidman and Urban are ready to put their careers on hold to raise their first child in Australia.
While they are expected to keep their Nashville mansion, the couple who met during a gala dinner at the annual G'Day LA week festivities in January 2005 believe it's important their child retain a "national identity", according to friends.
It is also believed the baby, whose due date has not been revealed, will be born at a private hospital in Sydney. "Nicole and Keith are very proud of their Australian heritage and are determined to bring up their first child in Australia," friends told London's Daily Mail. "They will base themselves in Australia, most likely Sydney, for the first six months, with Nicole hoping to be close to her immediate family at their Sydney home. After that, they will head to their Queensland property for six months."
For 40-year-old Kidman, bearing a child marks a personal triumph after suffering an ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage during her first marriage to megastar Tom Cruise, with whom she has two adopted children, Isabella, 15, and Connor, 12.
Basking in her pregnancy glory, a positively glowing Kidman appeared worlds away from the traumas of the past, showing off her baby bump while enjoying several intimate lunch and dinner dates with Urban in Sydney last week. "After a miscarriage during her first marriage, she was devastated and nearly gave up on the idea. It's an absolute godsend," a family friend said. "After eight months of fertility treatment, she is well and truly beside herself. One of the things that really appealed about Keith from the start was his interest in having kids. "Now that she is pregnant, he's 100 per cent behind her and just as excited as she is to have a child. While they will wait to find out the sex, Keith is hoping for a boy."
While Kidman had kept mum about her baby news, telling only immediate family over the festive season, speculation had been strong.
The news caps a year in which she has toured the nation as Lady Sarah Ashley in Luhrmann's blockbuster.
From humble beginnings as a freckle-faced, flame-haired teenager at Lane Cove public school, she was initiated into the world of celebrity on the arm of one of the world's most desirable actors, Cruise.
And the star of Moulin Rouge, The Others and Bewitched still commands attention, whether it be for her films or personal life, after more than 25 years in showbiz.
Headlines of her split with Cruise, baby blues, Urban's rehab stint and recent claims of a Scientology sex tape have been splashed worldwide, as have reported romantic liaisons with Robbie Williams, Lenny Kravitz, fellow Australian star Russell Crowe and multi-millionaire producer Steve Bing.
Kidman's desire to "wind down" her film-making activities to start a family and live a "gypsy" lifestyle on the road with Urban is finally reality. "We are both very intertwined," Kidman said last year. "It's just lovely that coming from the same country gives you so much to draw from and bonds you in a way that people just don't understand. "When you come from different countries, you really don't bond in the same way."
Before Kidman and Urban even began dating, the willowy actor made her desire for more children clear, telling reporters in April 2005 that her biological clock was ticking. "I have got hormones running through my system," she said. "That is why I sit wriggling, saying I want to have a baby."From the Hearld Sun
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