‘That’s not true’: Bad news for fans of one Nicole Kidman meme

If you’ve been on the internet for a while, you’ll remember the “Nicole Kidman divorces Tom Cruise” meme. The picture shows a younger Kidman wearing casual clothes and cheering like—well, cheering like she just divorced a toxic man.

The image unsurprisingly resonated with people, including other divorcees. Jenna Dewan famously posted it on Instagram Stories after divorcing Channing Tatum this year. It was often used when a downfall was celebrated, or sometimes people reposted it simply because they loved Nicole Kidman and were glad she wasn’t tethered to Tom Cruise anymore. Let’s not forget that there’s been speculation for years that the divorce was because of Cruise’s ties to Scientology, and Cruise is allegedly still a big part of the cult, even today. So, to many, the image symbolized freedom.

Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t what we all thought it was!

Kidman, who’s about to star in Babygirl, explained the truth during an interview with British GQ. “That was not me; that was from a film, that wasn’t real life. I know that image!” she said. She was playing a character—she didn’t specify which one or from which film—she wasn’t divorcing Tom Cruise. “That’s not true,” she said. So, disappointing news for meme fans everywhere.

Kidman is fine being a meme, though. She also mentioned another famous meme of hers, the one where she’s clapping funnily at the Oscars. That was, she said, “‘Cause I had a massive heavy borrowed ring on and it was really painful, and I was scared of wrecking the jewelry. Ha! There’s always something behind the actual images that go out there, right?”

She’s also cool with the memes of her AMC ads, which are plentiful. “Yeah, yeah,” she said to GQ. “‘Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.’ But I’ll do anything for cinema, so you can meme me as much as you want.” That’s good news! But those hoping for another Nicole Kidman divorce meme will probably have to look elsewhere. Kidman is married to Keith Urban now and she certainly doesn’t seem likely to divorce him anytime soon.