Movie star Nicole Kidman has a bizarre fear of butterflies she can't overcome.

The Cold Mountain actress developed the terrifying phobia when she was a child in Australia and despite endless attempts to shake off the problem, she still can't stand the pretty insects.

She reveals, "Sometimes when I would come home from school the biggest butterfly or moth you'd ever seen would be just sitting on our front gate.

"I would climb over the fence, crawl around to the side of the house - anything to avoid having to go through the front gate.

"I have tried to get over it (the phobia) I walked into the big butterfly cage at the American Museum of Natural History and had the butterflies on me, but that didn't work.

"I jump out of planes, I could be covered in cockroaches, I do all sorts of things, but I just don't like the feel of butterflies' bodies."