Nicole Kidman’s Practical Magic 2 return proves one relationship matters most, after Urban split

Analysis: Almost 30 years on, Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are reuniting with midnight margaritas in the Practical Magic 2 trailer and the opening line tells us everything we need to know: “No magic is stronger than sisterhood.” 

It’s clear the film’s central theme, of sisterhood overtaking traditional romance, is fiercely mirroring Kidman’s real life, particularly after the breakdown of her 19-year marriage to Keith Urban.    

A long time has passed since the original 1998 film, but the sequel’s trailer immediately transports us back to the whimsical world of the Owens sisters, Gillian (Kidman) and Sally (Bullock), their aunts Frances (Stockard Channing) and Bridget (Dianne Wiest) as well as a new generation of Owens girls Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie).  

While the sneak peek offers a brief nod to romance even with the Owens family curse – that any man they fall in love with will suffer a tragic death – the heartbeat continues to be the unwavering loyalty between sisters Sally and Gillian.  

The first Practical Magic subverted the “happily ever after” trope, proving that a curse couldn’t be broken by a man’s love, but by the collective power of women.

Decades later, the sequel appears to double down on this truth. The magic on display isn’t born from a perfect love interest instead it is sustained by the women who hold your hand when the world unravels.

Read more

Nicole Kidman makes first public post to ex-husband Keith Urban in sweet response to his move

That message seems incredibly poignant and timely considering the current season of Kidman’s personal life.

Following the end of Kidman and Urban’s 19-year marriage in late 2025, her younger and only sibling Antonia Kidman was described as her “rock”.

In the days following the official divorce filing, Antonia was by her sister’s side at her Nashville home. The sisters and their children spent the holidays together while they later took an adventure trip to Antarctica all together.

It’s not just during the Kidman-Urban divorce that the sisters have come together.

Antonia was there to help the Hollywood actress face scrutiny after her 2001 split from Tom Cruise.

“I was lucky because my sister would come. I remember her flying to Cannes [in 2001] because it’s frightening walking up that red carpet with all that scrutiny, feeling very insecure and not quite sure where to go or how to survive,” Kidman  told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2020.

It’s a road that’s travelled both ways between the sisters. Kidman supported her younger sister when her own marriage to Angus Hawley ended in 2007 and when he suddenly died of a heart attack in 2015.

The sisters leaned on each other during the death of their father Antony in 2014 and mother Janelle 10 years later.

Through it all, the Kidman sisters have held one another’s hands with Antonia saying their relationship is like no other.

“Nicole will say things to me that I don’t know whether anyone else will say, or I won’t listen to from anyone else,” she told SMH.

There are real life parallels between Kidman and her Practical Magical character Gillian Owens. Both, strongly independent women who, when faced with the breakdown of a life they knew, found their emotional anchor not in a prince charming but in the woman who has known them the longest.

In a Hollywood world that is obsessed with tracking a woman’s next romantic partner,Practical Magic and Kidman’s real life experience reminds us of one simple truth: there is no magic more powerful, or more protective, than the bond of sisterhood.