Actress Nicole Kidman says having her two youngest children helped her cope with the "frustration" of being an older woman in Hollywood.

She added that having her daughters Sunday and Faith with her husband Keith Urban helped take her life in a brand-new direction, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Of her career, Kidman said: "I was frustrated - as so many women are in different careers - at the idea of being told, Well, that's it: you've passed through that period where it's all going to be fine, and now you're in your 40s we're not interested as much in your storytelling or your ideas or in who you are as a woman or a person."

Speaking about having children with Urban, she said: "Our chance of having a baby was one percent. But my husband said, aWell, at least we've got a chance. I thought, '1 per cent isn't a chance'. But he was right. Their coming into my life was the flipside of losing someone - seeing that pregnancy test and wondering, 'What is this new person going to be like?' It's an amazing thing."

Kidman also spoke about her time being single in between her marriages to actors Tom Cruise, whom she was married to from 1990 until 2001, and with whom she has adopted children Isabella, 28, and Connor, 26, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

She also spoke about Urban, whom she married in 2006.

Kidman said: "I like sharing my life. I've always been like that. At 14 I had a boyfriend because I didn't want to be alone. I went through a period where I was forced into being alone.

"But that was almost like a portal to go through, where you don't just jump from one thing to another, you're actually there, living it. And I came out of it much more available (mentally, to meet someone)."

In her family, the actress joked she isn't the "top" child as far as her mother is concerned.

Kidman told The Mail on Sunday's You magazine: "There are so many different family members here and my mother always has a favourite. The other day I said, 'Where am I on the list?' and she goes, 'Oh no, you're up there right now, but you're definitely not the top.'

"But I may be top next week! I had Mum over and made her some curry and drove her home. So I might have risen a couple of notches."