Keith Urban credits marriage to Nicole Kidman for helping him stay sober

Keith Urban has said his marriage to Nicole Kidman reinforces his committment to sobriety – 16 years after he checked into rehab for the final time.

In a new interview, the American country music singer opened up about maintaining a “a work-life balance” and living “the life [he wants] to live” after he checked into the Betty Ford Centre in California in October 2006.

In 2016, Urban told Rolling Stone magazine he would have understood if Kidman decided to leave him at the time, explaining that his addiction “caused a fresh implosion of my marriage”.

However, nearly two decades since his time at the centre, the “Wild Hearts” singer told The Sun that his substance abuse struggles are under control and that he’s focussed on “trying to set a good example” for the couple’s daughters, 13-year-old Sunday and 11-year-old Faith.

At one point in the interview, Urban lightheartedly said he resists the temptation of a “night on the tiles” because “I’d like to stay married.”

“I guess I used to do a thing where I’d work out the ramifications of whatever I did and then decide whether it was worth it — and most of the time I decided it was going to be despite the problems it would cause,” the 54-year-old Grammy winner admitted, adding: “I’d go, ‘I know this is going to cause this issue, but it will be bloody fun.’”

“I still make the odd mistake but not anything like I did in the past,” he said, explaining, “These days I see them coming before everything implodes.”

Now, his focus his on doing the things he has to so that he can live a life of his own choosing and, for Urban, that means “playing for hours on stage effortlessly, and still feeling good the next day.”

However, Urban doesn’t believe everyone has to make the same choices he did.

“I don’t lecture people on stuff, not at all. I want people to come to my shows and enjoy their night,” the New Zealand-born singer told the publication, adding, “They don’t come to hear me tell them what to do, and everyone has to do what’s right for them.”

Urban’s self-titled, comprehensive new biography by author Jeff Apter, released in March this year and chronicles his rise to fame – and the obstacles he overcame along the way.