Nicole Kidman met Tom Cruise when she was only 22 years old and it turned into a whirlwind romance that led to marriage and adopting two children together. The two met on the set of Days of Thunder and it’s rumored that Tom handpicked Nicole Kidman after seeing her in an Australian movie. It just goes to show, that you never know how someone's life is going to change from one moment to the next.

The marriage didn’t last and that saddened their fans who thought the two were in it for the long haul. It wasn’t a quickie marriage, however. After all, these two had spent 10 years together before going their separate ways.

They do share two children together and they both moved on with other people, though these days Tom Cruise is riding solo. It’s nice to go back and see the couple the way we remember them and how adorable they used to look together. They were one couple that we wish would have stayed together. There are many things that fans probably don’t know about the couple and we have all the details. Check out these 20 things most people didn’t know about Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s marriage.

20 It Was Love At First Sight

We imagine for any girl that meets a mega-star like Tom Cruise would be just a little bit in awe, and that’s exactly when young Nicole Kidman felt when she first laid eyes on him. She was brought in for the movie Days Of Thunder and the rest is history. “I remember being so nervous and seeing Tom Cruise drive up in a Porsche... He got out of the car and walked through the door, and I was like, ‘Ah.’ My jaw dropped.” She was there to audition for the role and we have to admit, it’s a pretty sweet response.

19 She Changed Her Whole Life Plan For Him

We all have a life plan in our twenties, but sometimes something happens to derail that plan. For Nicole, meeting Tom was the one thing that made her forget all about the life plans she had. "He basically swept me off my feet," she told Vanity Fair in 2002. "I fell madly, passionately in love. And as happens when you fall in love, my whole plan in terms of what I wanted for my life — I was like, 'Forget it. This is it.'" That’s one of the sweetest things we have ever heard and it just makes it that much sadder that it didn’t work out.

18 She Felt Electricity When She First Met Him

We know that she fell madly in love with him but she said she knew the moment she shook hands with him that there was something different there because she felt electricity when she touched him. If that isn’t the magic of love stories then we’re not sure what is. In an interview with the BBC, the actress said, “I walked into the [audition], and [Tom] was the one that stood up and shook my hand. And I just remember . . . electricity going through me.” That’s the best part of meeting someone, is discovering that you have great chemistry together.

17 Marrying Him Made Her A Celebrity

When Nicole met Tom, she was virtually an unknown actress, especially in the States. At the time Tom Cruise was a huge star and being with him thrust her into the spotlight. Kidman stated to Marie Claire that she didn’t marry Tom to get famous but that was certainly what happened. According to Us Weekly, she said, "I was never seeking to be a celebrity. But I was prepared to do that for love…It's hard when you're young. But I'm ready to give up anything for love because ultimately, that is what you have." She’s a talented actress whether he helped her with that or not, doesn’t really matter.

16 She Wanted To Have Babies The Minute She Married Him

Seriously, who wouldn’t? There’s no doubt about it, Tom Cruise is a good-looking guy. Anyone who is married to him would probably want to get on that baby train pretty quickly. “From the minute Tom and I were married, I wanted to have babies,” Kidman previously told Marie Claire magazine in 2007. “And we lost a baby early on, so that was really very traumatic.” Unfortunately, Kidman was never able to have biological children with Tom. She suffered an ectopic pregnancy which is something that’s hard for any mother to have to go through.

15 Adopting Brought Her A Lot Of Joy

The two decided to adopt two children, Bella and Connor who are now all grown up. The idea that she could have children another way brought a lot of jot to Kidman. She was sad because of the pregnancies she couldn’t carry to term but adopting made things better. “There’s an enormous amount of pain and an enormous amount of joy on the other side of it,” Kidman told the Tatler about becoming a mother after the heartbreak of losing her pregnancies. “The flipside of going through so much yearning and pain to get there is the feeling of 'Ahhhh!' when you have the child.”

14 Tom Filed For Divorce Without Warning

You would think that two people would be aware that a divorce is looming on the horizon but Kidman claims that she was completely blindsided when Tom filed for divorce. Kidman responded to Tom’s divorce papers stating that he left her without warning. He refused to discuss their problems with her and had no interest in going to counseling to try to fix anything, as reported by Daily Mail. The divorce wasn’t something that Kidman wanted and it had a lasting impact on her. His publicist announced the split as an “amicable separation” blaming it on the pressures of work but Kidman was stunned by the announcement.

13 She Was Pregnant When He Filed For Divorce

The Daily Mail reported that Tom Cruise was claiming that the marriage ended in December but Kidman contested it, stating that they were still romantically involved throughout the whole month and that she became pregnant because of it. Kidman claimed that she was floored by the announcement because the two of them had celebrated their 10th anniversary on December 24th. “During the balance of December and thereafter the parties were [romantic] and she became pregnant by petitioner but lost the baby through a miscarriage,” the papers stated. It would be confusing certainly for anyone to celebrate an anniversary and then be served with divorce papers.

12 She Begged Tom Not To Leave Her

According to the Daily Mail Nicole Kidman “begged” Tom not to end their marriage but he stormed out anyway and she lost the baby that she was carrying at the time as a result. Part of her plea was for them to try to work things out in counseling but Cruise was not interested in reconciling and left the marriage. The account of the actress asking for the marriage not to end are all part of her court papers that were filed in Los Angeles in response to Cruise's divorce petition in February of that year. It’s definitely a sad ending to a coupling that we loved.

11 Their Divorce Had Nothing To Do With Eyes Wide Shut

Nicole and Tom were in numerous movies together throughout their relationship. They started off with Days Of Thunder, then two years later it was Far and Away and then many years after that they starred in Eyes Wide Shut together. They obviously liked working together but there was a lot of speculation that the storyline of Eyes Wide Shut affected their marriage negatively. "People thought that making the film was the beginning of the end of my marriage," she writes for The Hollywood Reporter. "But I don't really think it was. Tom and I were close then, and it was very much the three of us. On screen, the husband and wife are at odds, and Stanley wanted to use our marriage as a supposed reality."

10 Nicole Says Marriage To Tom Protected Her

One thing that Nicole did enjoy about being married to Tom was the protection it brought her in the industry. She didn’t have to worry about any ill-will from others because her husband was a very powerful man in the industry. No one would dare try to take advantage of his wife and Nicole penned an essay about her experience for New York magazine. “I got married very young, but it definitely wasn't power for me - it was protection," she said. "I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being [physically hurt]. I would work, but I was still very much cocooned.”

9 He Prefers To Date Tall Women

Tom Cruise is a short guy and we have always wondered why he continuously dates tall women. They aren’t just a little taller than him, they are significantly taller. Both Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes are unusually tall women. We have to assume that he must love the stature of tall women. Kidman wore flats while she was married to him because she would have been even taller than him. After their divorce, Nicole was a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman and totally made a joke at Tom’s expense. According to CNN, she said: "I can wear heels now," jokingly referring to the obvious height difference between them.

8 They Lived In A Bubble Together

Nicole Kidman found her marriage to Tom to be intense and that can be a good thing for some people. There are people that enjoy a passionate romance and that was the way it was for Nicole. After the two married, they found themselves to be in their own little bubble and they were fine with that. Kidman opened up to Vanity Fair about how fame changed their relationship. “There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you're in that bubble, it's very intoxicating, because it's just the two of you,” she admitted. “And there is only one other person that's going through it. It brings you very close, and it's deeply romantic."

7 She Doesn’t Regret A Moment Of Being With Tom

When a marriage goes sour, it’s not unusual for one or both parties to become bitter with their partner. You start to think you wish that you would never have been married in the first place. But for Nicole, she didn’t want the marriage to be over but she didn’t have a whole lot of choice in it. Even after the marriage was over, Nicole will admit that she doesn’t regret one moment that she spent with Tom. She told London’s The Evening Standard newspaper: “I was a baby when I married Tom, but I don’t regret any of it.”

6 Tom’s Faith Always Came First

We know that Tom Cruise has a strong belief system when it comes to his faith and he spends a lot of time within the organization. It’s a large part of his life and it’s safe to say that it’s probably one of the biggest priorities in his life. The Daily Beast reported that the organization intimidated Tom to split from Nicole. “According to the testimony of Marty Rathbun, formerly the second-highest ranking official in the Church of Scientology who left in 2004, Scientology head David Miscavige was suspicious of Cruise’s second wife, whose father was a renowned psychologist in his native Australia. (His faith) is vehemently opposed to psychiatry and psychology,” The Daily Beast reported.

5 They Didn’t Socialize Much As A Couple

Tom and Nicole weren’t the kind of couple that went to a lot of Hollywood parties. They enjoyed their family life at home the most. Kidman got married young and also adopted her children early on in her twenties as well, so she settled down early. She told The Today Show that they didn’t go out much as a couple. “Because I was married at 23 years old, I wasn’t going to parties or I wasn’t going out a lot. I was pretty much at home,” she explained. “I had my first child at 25 and I was married, I was in a family. So my sense of being in the world was... I was working or I was at home.”

4 Nicole Didn’t Feel Like She Deserved To Be There With Him

When she first met Tom Cruise, he was at the top of his game while Nicole was really just beginning her professional life. She told Glamour that at times she felt overshadowed by her famous husband. "I felt I became a star only by association. I didn't think [my early movies] were very good, which is why I would always cower in the background,” she shared. Nicole went on to say, "I thought, 'I don't deserve to be here.' We would go to the Oscars and I would think, I'm here to support him. I felt it was my job to put on a beautiful dress and to be seen and not heard."

3 Nicole Felt Their Relationship Was Perfect At The Time

Nicole certainly loved Tom Cruise a lot, no one can even argue that. Despite the fact that they are now divorced and have been for a long time, she still says the nicest things about him and their marriage. She talked to People magazine about how the marriage ending had come as a surprise to her. “Our life together was perfect," she said. "It took me a very long time to heal. It was a [surprise] to my system. That was a great relationship. I think it ran its course. I was really damaged and not sure whether [love and marriage] was ever going to happen again to me.”

2 Nicole Kidman Outgrew Tom

After his divorce to Katie Holmes, there was a lot of speculation about the fact that Tom was divorced from all his wives when they all turned 33 as reported by The Huffington Post. Talk about bizarre. Many fans wondered if the number 33 had some significance to his faith in some way. Nicole was certainly 33 when he divorced her and so were his wives Mimi Rogers and Katie Holmes. Maybe that year does have some special meaning for Tom though he didn’t have much of a choice when Katie left him. It could have been just the age in which Nicole Kidman and the rest of his wives outgrew him.

1 They Were Supposed To Share The Children

When Tom and Nicole separated, she requested joint custody of her children but as time went on, it appeared as if they wanted to spend more time with Tom and live with Tom. Nicole seemed to be seeing less and less of her children. Tabloids speculated that the kids were avoiding their mother because of their belief system which was the same as Tom’s. Nicole discussed her children's decision with Who magazine. "They are adults. They are able to make their own decisions,” she said. “They have made choices to be Scientologists and, as a mother, it's my job to love them. And I am an example of that tolerance and that's what I believe."

Sources: James News, Daily Mail, Easy Weddings, Nicki Swift, E! Online, Vanity Fair