Cruise and Kidman Announce Separation; Work Schedules Cited

Hollywood power couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced Monday that they are going their separate ways after 10 years of marriage.

The news seemed to catch many in the industry by surprise. The couple blamed their work schedules for keeping them apart.

In a prepared statement, Pat Kingsley, spokeswoman for both actors, said the split is amicable and that both Cruise and Kidman regret it. No third party was involved, said a source who is a close advisor to the couple.

It was not clear how custody of the couple’s two young children, Connor and Isabella, would be handled.

As recently as last year, Kidman told Talk magazine: “I hope we are together when we are 80. I can’t say we will be but I will be so devastated if we are not.”

Both Cruise, 38, and Kidman, 33, have averaged two films a year since they met in 1990 on the set of “Days of Thunder.” They married later that year, about one year after Cruise divorced actress Mimi Rogers.

They have occasionally starred together in films, including “Far and Away” in 1992, and the late Stanley Kubrick’s last film, “Eyes Wide Shut,” which was released in 1999. During the lengthy filming, Cruise developed an ulcer.

In the September interview with Talk, Kidman acknowledged, “Even if you have a really strong love it can be destroyed over time. You start looking in different directions--you just do, you can’t help it. . . . I wouldn’t want to be married to me, but luckily he does.”

Times staff writers Louise Roug and Gina Piccalo contributed to this story.