New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- In Nashville court papers and Paris photographs, a measured split at the height of two careers

Sydney -Nicole Kidman has filed for divorce from Keith Urban after nearly two decades of marriage, a quiet end to a nineteen year cross-Pacific partnership that often doubled as a family project and a cross industry brand. Online court records in Davidson County, Tennessee, show a Sept. 30 filing citing irreconcilable differences, a spare legal phrase that leaves room for personal complexity. In public, both stars have kept their tone even, appearing at previously scheduled events and letting paperwork do the talking.

Kidman, 58, has not offered a narrative to match the headlines. Instead, she has allowed images to stand i...