These videos of Keith Urban have sparked a tabloid frenzy. This is why

Hours after it emerged Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban had separated after nearly two decades of marriage, tabloid media uncovered video of Urban performing with US singer-songwriter Maggie Baugh, sparking a frenzy of wild speculation about the relationship between the pair.

The 25-year-old Florida-born rising country music star, a classically trained violinist, has been touring with Urban this year and rumours are swirling thanks to a video she posted on Instagram days before the high-profile couple’s separation was announced.

In the clip, Urban is heard changing the lyrics of the song The Fighter, written soon after he and Kidman had got together, about the need to stay strong when under pressure, from the original (“When they’re tryna get to you, baby I’ll be the fighter”) to “When they’re tryna get to you, Maggie, I’ll be your guitar player”.

Interviewed in Billboard in 2017, Urban said of the song: “It’s all from a conversation my wife and I had early on in our relationship – that when things get tough, I need to hold her tighter and just try to take care of her. The song is about wanting to heal somebody, wanting to take care of somebody, wanting to protect somebody. It’s really like a vow in so many ways.”

The concert footage in question has been viewed on Baugh’s Instagram 3.7 million times. Her debut album, Dear Me, was released in October 2023 and she is based in Nashville – as is Urban, no doubt fuelling speculation further.

A second clip has also been unearthed by US site TMZ, from Vegas’ Mandalay Bay resort & Casino on April 1.

In another performance of The Fighter, Urban points at Baugh on stage before singing, “I was born to love you.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Baugh’s father said the idea of the veteran country singer being in a relationship with his child was news to him. “I don’t know anything about it, other than she’s a guitar player for him,” Chuck Baugh said on Thursday, after the footage re-emerged.

“It’s more of a musician thing than a dating thing,” he said, adding he has “not heard one way or the other”.

While the lyric change and Urban’s gesture are part of what happens in live performances all the time, the tabloids – and millions of fans all over social media – can’t stop hypothesising about what it means. Or what they want it to mean.

Urban, Baugh and Kidman have not commented on the rumours.

Interviews emerge

NineHoney (owned by this masthead’s Nine Entertainment) weighed in on the discussion, unearthing an interview Urban did with Ryan Seacrest in July this year. The piece ran with the headline: Keith Urban’s awkward one-word response to Nicole Kidman praise could have clued us in months ago.

Asking the Grammy winner about his life with Kidman, Seacrest wondered about how the couple made their relationship work, saying “I think that people know that you do take great pride in – even though you’re busy – making time with each other, which is why you’ve been together 19, 20 years?′

NineHoney then said: “Urban’s reaction was a simple yet telling, ‘Mhm. Yeah’.”

The article went on to say “Internet sleuths filled the comment sections, with one noting the interview was, ‘very uncomfortable with the Nicole discussion’.”

It wasn’t the only media appearance to resurface in the wake of this week’s separation news.

Also in July, ahead of his High and Alive World Tour, Urban was interviewed by Adelaide radio presenters Hayley Pearson and Max Burford on Mix 102.3’s Hayley & Max in the Morning.

The chat seemed to go awry when he was asked about Kidman’s intimate scenes on screen with younger men – such as those with Zac Efron in the 2024 film A Family Affair. The interview immediately ended when the call was disconnected.

“Did he just hang up on us?” Pearson said. “Oh, I knew that would happen. We’ve upset him.” Urban’s team later denied that claim, saying he had not hung up.

Both conversations had taken place over the northern hemisphere summer. In the first story breaking the news of their separation, US site TMZ reported on Tuesday (AEST) the couple had been living apart “since the beginning of [the northern] summer”.

However, a source close to the family – who chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the matter – said the split was not mutual, telling this masthead that Kidman has been fighting for the survival of the marriage and that she is “broken-hearted”.

On Wednesday (AEST) it was revealed Kidman has petitioned to end the marriage in a Nashville court, citing “irreconcilable differences”.

The former couple has yet to make any public statement on their separation.