Kidman's Son Opens Up About His Mom

With Nicole Kidman in a happy relationship and Tom Cruise recently divorced, it's easy to forget that once upon a time, the two actors were married — and that, together, they adopted two children. Since the couple's divorce in 2001, it's been speculated that Isabella, 21, and Connor, 18, have had little contact with their mother, choosing to be raised primarily by Cruise. It hasn't helped matters that Kidman hasn't been photographed publicly with her children in years, and that in interviews, she's talked much more frequently about her two daughters with husband Keith Urban, than Connor and Isabella. In a new interview, however, Connor disputes these rumors, saying "I don't care what people say, I know that me and Mum are solid."

Mentioning a recent visit to Kidman's Australian home last week, Connor vehemently denies reports that he and his sister are estranged from his mother.

"I love my mum," he says, adding "my family means everything. Yeah, I love my music, but the family comes before everything else."

Connor's statements are some of the first either child has made regarding their relationship with Kidman. In 2012, Isabella told an Australian magazine that she sees her mom "sometimes."

"I love mom. She's my mom. She's great," Isabella said. ""I see her sometimes and I speak to her."

For those who've found themselves wondering what Kidman's relationship — if there was any — with her children with Cruise was like, Connor and Isabella's comments are certainly nice to hear. While it's understandable that there might've been some tension when the kids chose to live with Cruise over Kidman after the divorce, it's distressing to think that the family became estranged because of that choice.

The fact is, however, that for all we know, Kidman's relationship with her children has been completely fine. Yes, they may not be photographed together, but that certainly doesn't mean that they don't ever see each other. As for the rumors that the kids didn't get along with their mother, or that Kidman didn't approve of their beliefs in Scientology, they're simply that — rumors. There may be truth to them, but the fact is that we simply don't know, and to assume that the family was estranged says more about our dependence on the media than the relationship between Kidman and her children.

As a society, we rely far too heavily on the photo "proof" provided by media outlets, using pictures of celebrities and their children, or a lack thereof, to determine whether or not a family is "happy." It's silly to make assumptions, especially now that so many magazines and websites are choosing not to publish photos of celebrities' children taken without their parents' consent. If no pictures of a celebrity and his/her kids appear in People for months, does that mean they're estranged? If an actor talks more about one child than the other, does it mean they aren't speaking? Of course not. Yet we make those assumptions, especially when there's a nasty divorce or a religious dispute in the mix.

So while it's definitely nice to hear Connor Cruise's own affirmations that his relationship with Kidman is intact, there shouldn't have been a desire to provoke an answer about it from him at all. Estranged, reunited, whatever it may be, the kid's relationship with his mother is between them. It's not our place to make an assumption about the well-being of a family we know nothing about.