Tom Cruise's romances: A timeline, from Nicole Kidman to Katie Holmes, other stars

USA Today

02-05-2025

Tom Cruise's romances: A timeline, from Nicole Kidman to Katie Holmes, other stars
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Tom Cruise awarded US Navy's top civilian award for 'valor'
Tom Cruise has been honored with the US Navy's highest civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service Award, for his "outstanding contributions" to the military through his iconic screen roles.
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One of Hollywood's leading men has also been one of the industry's leading love interests.
Tom Cruise's relationships have been high-profile since his rise to fame, with marriages to A-list actresses Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes and nearly a dozen relationships and romantic entanglements with other film stars over the years.
Cruise, July 3, 1962, has spoken very little about his relationships over the years (aside from one notable exception on Oprah's couch). But speculation about his relationships continues to fuel public fascination.
Now, Cruise's public outings with "Knives Out" breakout star Ana de Armas, 37, are fueling rumors about whether they are more than professional collaborators. Take a trip down memory lane as we examine Cruise's storied dating history.
Tom Cruise's first marriage: Mimi Rogers, 1987-90
The first of Cruise's three marriages was to "The Rapture" actress Mimi Rogers. Rogers reportedly introduced Cruise to the Church of Scientology, of which he is still a member and has long been an advocate. When they married, Rogers was 32 while Cruise was 24.
According to interviews, the two dated in the '80s; they met at a dinner party. Rogers alluded to the Sun Sentinel that friends were playing matchmaker with the two of them, while Cruise recalled to Rolling Stone in the June 1986 issue that Rogers "was dating a friend" when they met. He added, "I thought she was extremely bright."
Their wedding, which they referred to using the codeword "The Project," was a "very small, very private and completely normal" ceremony that took place on May 9, 1987, Rogers told the Sun Sentinel. Per a People report at the time, "The Outsiders" co-star and childhood friend Emilio Estevez was Cruise's best man.
In yet another Rolling Stone interview – which reportedly took place in November and published in January 1990 – Cruise was effusive in expressing his love for Rogers and admitted to never having been in love before her.
"Since I've been with her, it's opened me up a lot. I think it's helped me be a better actor. We live a lot of life together. We share everything," he said, later adding, "I care about my wife more than anything in the world. She's my best friend. I just really like being with her, you know? I love her."
Less than a week after the Rolling Stone cover story was published, Rogers and Cruise announced they were divorcing. "While there have been very positive aspects to our marriage, there were some issues which could not be resolved even after working on them for a period of time," the statement read.
Second marriage: Nicole Kidman, 1990-2001
By the end of 1990, Cruise had thrown himself into a new marriage: this time with fellow blockbuster star Nicole Kidman.
Months after meeting on the set of "Days of Thunder," the two married on Dec. 24, 1990, when Kidman was 23 and Cruise was 28.
"I thought he was the sexiest man I'd ever seen in my life," Kidman told Vanity Fair in an interview that was published in July 1995. "So it started on lust."
Cruise agreed the relationship started with "instant lust," but marrying the "Moulin Rouge!" actress was "the best decision I ever made."
"I thought she was amazingly sexy and stunning. It grew into love and respect," he told the magazine. "I knew she was it for me. I absolutely knew — I just knew it. I thought, 'This is the person to be able to share all of who I am with, and her with me.'"
In the same interview, Kidman confirmed she was a Scientologist but declined to elaborate on it because "it gets misinterpreted and misrepresented."
Over their decade-long marriage, the two welcomed two children – Isabella Cruise, 32, and Connor Cruise, 30 – through adoption and also co-starred in the 1992 film "Far and Away." In February 2001, they announced their split.
With their marriage in the rearview mirror, Kidman shared in a 2007 Marie Claire interview that at the beginning of her union with Cruise, she'd experienced an ectopic pregnancy, a dangerous condition that occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside of the uterus. She then had a miscarriage at the end of their marriage.
"It was incredibly traumatic for me," she told the magazine.
A few years later, Kidman mused that her and Cruise's difference in maturity factored into their divorce, telling Vanity Fair in 2013: "I was a child, really, when I got married. And I needed to grow up."
Third marriage: Katie Holmes, 2006-2012
"Dawson's Creek" star Holmes and Cruise made their debut in 2005, got engaged in front of the Eiffel Tower that summer and welcomed their daughter, Suri Cruise, now 19, in April 2006.
They married later that year, in November 2006, at a medieval castle in the town of Bracciano, located outside of Rome. Holmes was 27. Cruise was 44. The Scientology-themed ceremony reportedly had a star-studded guest list, with attendees that included Steven Spielberg, Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, and Jim Carrey.
Yes, this was the romance that inspired Cruise, who was promoting "War of the Worlds" at the time, to hop atop a couch during a bizarre "Oprah Winfrey Show" sit-down. The stunt had Winfrey declaring, "We've never seen you behave this way before."
The couple's five-year relationship provided ample fodder for tabloids, as Cruise and Holmes developed the couple name "TomKat." As such, their 2012 divorce was met with a media frenzy.
But the former couple struck a professional tone in their joint statement that read: "We are committed to working together as parents to accomplishing what is in our daughter Suri's best interests. We want to keep matters affecting our family private and express our respect for each other's commitment to each of our respective beliefs and support each other's roles as parents."
Reports at the time noted that one of the reasons for the split was that Holmes wanted to protect their daughter from Scientology. Cruise has been a member of the Church of Scientology since the 1980s and has been a longtime advocate.
Tom Cruise dated Penélope Cruz, was also linked to Cher and Melissa Gilbert
During an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" in 2017, Melissa Gilbert confirmed she dated Cruise (at the time known as Tom Mapother) at "16 or 17," which would put Cruise around 18 or 19 years old. "We made out, but honestly, there was no sex," she told Cohen.
Cher, who reportedly also dated Cruise in the 1980s, told Cohen in 2013 that Cruise was among her top five best lovers.
Cruise has also been linked to singer-songwriter Patti Scialfa, who is now married to Bruce Springsteen, and his "Risky Business" co-star Rebecca De Mornay.
In the early 2000s, Cruise dated his "Vanilla Sky" co-star Penélope Cruz for a few years.