“I thought our life together was perfect,” Nicole tells France’s DuJour magazine.

Now, 11 years on, she is happily married to country crooner Keith Urban but says she was completely blindsided by Tom’s decision to end their union, as she always thought they had a happy marriage.

“We were in a bubble, just the two of us. We became very dependent on one another,” she says.

“It took me a very long time to heal. It was a shock to my system.”

Nicole, who married Tom when she was just 23, admits she was “impulsive” and “naive” at that age.

“I was reeling with Tom,” she explains. “I would have gone to the ends of the earth for him... I was totally smitten. I fell madly, passionately in love.”

The 45-year-old, who is currently filming Grace Of Monaco in Nice, says she is now “happier than ever” and enjoying family life with Keith and their two daughters.

“I’m living in a friend’s house in Nice. My two daughters are with me - Sunday Rose, who’s four, and Faith Margaret, who’s two,” she says.

“My mother is about to fly in from Australia to babysit. Then Keith will be arriving… My family is with me. My family.”

Nicole says she has come a long way since her days with Tom and that meeting Keith changed her life.

“He is a wonderful, caring man and he makes me feel secure. We don’t ever like to be separated,” she reveals.

“We have a wonderful home life. There’s always music. Keith plays the guitar and piano and drums. He’s always composing music.”

“It’s lovely when you have a baby who picks up the drumsticks and plays, wearing angel wings.”