Nicole Kidman’s Adopted Children Were Left out of Her Emotional Emmys Speech

Oops? Nicole Kidman took home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie for her role as Celeste Wright in HBO’s Big Little Lies on Sunday, Sept. 17. In an emotional acceptance speech, the Aussie actress, 50, gave daughters Sunday Rose, 9, and Faith Margaret, 6 — whom she shares with husband Keith Urban — a sweet shout-out, but failed to acknowledge her older kids, Isabella, 24, and Connor, 22, whom she adopted with ex-husband Tom Cruise.

“I have two little girls, Sunday and Faith, and my darling Keith,” Nicole said in her touching oration. “This is yours. I want my little girls to have this on their shelf and to look at it and go, ‘Every time my mommy didn’t put me to bed, it’s because of this. I got something!’”

Nicole with Connor and Isabella in 2004. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Twitter wasted no time calling out Nicole for snubbing Connor and Isabella. “It’s always super uncomfortable to me when Nicole doesn’t mention her adopted kids. ‘I’ve got two little girls.’ Eek. #Emmys,” one viewer wrote, while another tweeted, “Wow Nicole way to remember your other two kids.”

Nicole’s relationship with her older children has been the subject of much speculation for more than a decade, ever since she married Keith, 49, in 2006. In 2007, she was quoted as telling GMTV that Connor and Isabella called her Nicole instead of mom. And in 2010, she revealed that they’d chosen to live with their dad following her 2001 divorce from Tom. To this day, many believe that the Church of Scientology — which Tom, 55, Isabella, and Connor are members of — has forced a wedge between Nicole (who is not a member) and her adopted kids.

Not surprisingly, a handful of Emmys watchers tweeted that they believe the family’s rift over religion had something to do with Nicole’s failure to mention Connor and Isabella in her speech. “Is it weird that Nicole Kidman doesn’t really acknowledge those kids she adopted with Tom Cruise or are they Scientology hostages?” one viewer asked, while another wrote, “Nicole Kidman didn’t mention her kids w/ Tom Cruise in her speech. That’s cause they were forced to disconnect from her by Scientology.”