tom cruise first wife

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All of Tom Cruise’s wives and girlfriends in order, chronologically

There’s nobody like Tom Cruise . He’s charismatic, he’s eccentric, he’s controversial, and he’s everybody’s beloved. He has made some of the most quotable films of all time yet has dedicated the last decade of his career to performing some of the most dangerous stunts ever. His unpredictability is arguably his greatest weapon, and we struggle to find a more perfect word to describe his love life.

Cruise has been world-famous since the 1980s, and in that time, he’s been linked to several different women. The interesting thing to note here, especially given Cruise’s desire for privacy, is that nearly all the women he’s dated are celebrities. Apparently, the Mission: Impossible actor likes to fraternize with other actors. Cruise’s latest girlfriend is literally his Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One co-star! However, before we jump ahead too quickly, let’s step back and begin at the very start.

Melissa Gilbert

Cruise’s relationship with Melissa Gilbert predates the name Cruise! Gilbert appeared on an episode of Watch What Happens Live in 2014, and she revealed that the actor was still going by his birth name when they first met. “I was maybe 16 or 17,” she recalled. “Actually, when I dated him, he was still Tom Mapother.”

Both Cruise and Gilbert were actors in 1981, but their situations could not have been more different. The former had just made his film debut in Endless Love (1981), and the latter was one of the cast members on the hit show Little House on the Prairie (1974-83). “He was like a struggling, starving actor, and I was working,” Gilbert added. “I actually bought him his first set of dishes.” They broke up within a few months.

Patti Scialfa

There are claims that Cruise romanced Heather Locklear and Rebecca de Mornay during the early 80s, but neither relationship has been confirmed by the people involved, so we felt like they shouldn’t warrant their own entry. However, what has been confirmed is the brief romance between Cruise and Patti Scialfa in 1985.

In a 1988 profile on Scialfa, People Magazine revealed that she dated Cruise before moving on to her future husband (and fellow E Street Band member) Bruce Springsteen. “Patti was hardly a nun before she met Bruce,” a source told People. “She doesn’t go out with accountants.” Scialfa and Springsteen have been married since 1991.

Tom Cruise and Cher dating already seems like the epitome of 80s pop culture, but it gets even better when you consider where they met: the 1985 wedding of Sean Penn and Madonna. These circumstances are so bizarre and hilarious that they sound made up. We digress. Cruise and Cher dated for a year, and while things didn’t last between them, there didn’t appear to be any hard feelings. Cher even listed Cruise as one of her top five lovers on a 2013 Watch What Happens Live episode.

Cher also marked the last time Cruise dated someone more famous than he was. Cher was one of the biggest pop stars on the planet and had just earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Mask (1985). Cruise released Top Gun the following year, and things were never the same.

Mimi Rogers

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers in 1987. They were together for three years, and BBC News theorized that Rogers was actually the person who introduced Cruise to the Church of Scientology. Either way, their romance was not built to last. Rogers cited intimacy issues, and then there were discrepancies in their respective careers.

Rogers’ career ran parallel with Cruise’s. She also made her film debut in 1981 and earned critical praise for her performances in Gung Ho (1986), Someone to Watch Over Me , and Street Smart (both 1987), but Cruise’s megastardom led to her being overlooked in the media. “No matter what the article is, it’s ‘Tom Cruise‘s wife’,” Rogers told People . She received a $4 million settlement from the divorce.

Nicole Kidman

Cruise quickly rebounded from the Rogers marriage and started dating Nicole Kidman. The two had met during the making of Days of Thunder (1990) and were already two years into their marriage by the time they made Far and Away (1992). Cruise and Kidman were one of the premiere celebrity couples of the decade, and their third collaboration, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), drew attention for its scandalous depiction of a marriage on the rocks.

Eventually, the issues bled into real life. Cruise and Kidman divorced in 2001 and released a joint statement citing “difficulties inherent in divergent careers.” They remain co-parents to their adopted children, Isabella Jane and Connor Antony.

Penelope Cruz

Cruise likes to rebound quickly, and he did it again while making Vanilla Sky (2001). He started dating co-star Penelope Cruz, who played his love interest in the film, and despite their shared fame, they maintained a relatively low profile. They dated until 2004 when their amicable split was chalked up to scheduling conflicts and a general acceptance that things had run their course.

At the time, Lee Anne DeVette, Cruise’s sister and publicist, told People : “They broke up at the end of January, and it’s amicable.” Cruz’s publicist, Robert Garlock, went as far as to state that the actors stayed in touch after splitting. “They remain good friends and still talk often,” he assured fans. “There is no other person involved.”

Katie Holmes

We wonder if you need a refresher on this one. Cruise went on The Oprah Winfrey Show to jump on the host’s couch and declare his love for Katie Holmes in one of the most cringe-inducing interviews ever. That being said, the couch jumping worked, and Cruise and Holmes were wed in 2005. They had a daughter named Suri the following year and remained steady tabloid fodder until their divorce in 2012.

Holmes told In Style that the attention of being married to Cruise was often overwhelming. “That time was intense,” she admitted. “It was a lot of attention, and I had a little child on top of it. We had some funny moments out and about in public.”

Hayley Atwell

Cruise’s love life has slowed down, but things picked up with Hayley Atwell during the making of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One . The Sun reports that Cruise and Atwell started dating in 2020, when Dead Reckoning Part One was going into production, and remained a couple until their split in May 2022.

While a reason for their official split was not given, Cruise and Atwell appear to be friendly with one another during the press junkets. Atwell even attended the premiere of Cruise’s film Top Gun: Maverick (2022) to show her support. Both are currently single.

Tom Cruise’s Ex-Wives: Everything To Know About His 3 Marriages To Katie, Nicole, & Mimi

The 'Mission: Impossible' star has been married thrice throughout his career. Find out everything you need to know about his ex-wives.

• Tom Cruise remains one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars
• The actor has been linked with several high-profile actresses throughout his career and married three of them
• He shares three children with two of his ex-wives

Tom Cruise   has been a popular actor for decades. He’s appeared in classics like  Top Gun and  Jerry Maguire,  but he’s also been a part of the massively popular  Mission: Impossible  film franchise. While he got famous through his many movie appearances, Tom’s personal life has long been a public interest , from his relationships to his family. Throughout his life, the 59-year-old actor has been married to three different women and welcomed three children with two of them.  Find out more about who his exes are and what his relationships with them were like!

Mimi Rogers

Tom’s first marriage was to  Mimi Rogers  in 1987. The actor had experienced early success in his career with  Risky Business  and  Top Gun , before he married the actress. Mimi, 66, has starred in a number of beloved movies like Lost In Space  or the first  Austin Powers  film. While the marriage was short-lived, Mimi did have a major impact on Tom, being the one who introduced him to Scientology, according to the book The Passion of Tom Cruise , via  Radar .  Her dad had been an original member of the church, via  The Hollywood Reporter .

Tom had said that the pair met at a dinner party in a 1986 profile by  Rolling Stone . In another profile , he later gushed about Mimi. “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,” he said.

Unfortunately, the couple later split and broke up in 1990. In the years since the divorce, Mimi has said that she regularly gets questioned about her marriage to the  Top Gun  star, but she doesn’t really comment much. ““Any time anything happens with him I get a call: ’What do you think of Katie? What do think about this?’ … ’Yeah, he’s having a kid. Of course I think it’s great. What do you want me to say?’ ’Do you think he’ll be a good father?’ ’How do I know any more than I would know what kind of parent you would be,” she explained to  Today  in 2006.

Meanwhile, Mimi keeps her fans up to date on her latest moves via Instagram . Her last post celebrated another season of working on the hit TV show Bosch Legacy.

Nicole Kidman

After the split from Mimi, Tom starred alongside his future wife  Nicole Kidman in  Days of Thunder,  and the pair got married in December 1990. The couple adopted two kids: a daughter Isabella,   29, and a son Connor,  27, in the 90s. During their 11-year marriage, Tom and Nicole also starred in the 1999 film  Eyes Wide Shut  together, which Nicole, 54, looked back on fondly in a 2020 New York Times   interview. “We were happily married through that. We would go go-kart racing after those scenes. We’d rent out a place and go racing at 3 in the morning,” she said.

After 11 years together, the couple broke up, and Tom filed for divorce in February 2001. In the years after the split, Nicole said the breakup was a “major shock” in a 2006 interview with  Ladies Home Journal,  per  Today .  “I knew I was going to get hit with something. But I think a divorce, and the demise of what your family is, is a little death in itself,” she said. Shortly after the split, there had been reports that Nicole had suffered a miscarriage at the end of their relationship, but she set the record straight in a 2007 interview with  Marie Claire . She said that it was “wrongly reported,” and clarified, “I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of [my marriage].”

Nicole went on to marry country music singer Keith Urban in 2006. The gorgeous actress shares hilarious videos of their daily life together in Australia via her Instagram . Check out the cute couple hilariously chasing a native brush tail possum away from their deck here !

Katie Holmes

Tom’s third and most recent marriage was to actress Katie Holmes .  The pair started dating in 2005, and they were quickly nicknamed “TomKat.” The actor famously declared his love for Katie in a viral interview with  Oprah Winfrey,  where he jumped on the couch on her talk show. A year after going public with their romance, Katie, 43, had their first daughter   Suri ,  16, together in April 2006. The couple got married that November. The wedding was an extravagant affair, with tons of high profile guests like  Jada Pinkett-Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey,  and many more, per  USA Today.   Tom’s best man was the head of the Church of Scientology  David Miscavige,  according to the   BBC .

After six years of marriage, the couple divorced in 2012. Katie announced that she was filing for divorce, and the split was quickly resolved due to a prenup arranged by the actress’s dad, according to  Vanity Fair . After the split, Katie moved to New York with Suri. Although she doesn’t often share snaps of her mini-me daughter to her Instagram , Katie does give fans a peek at her life in the Big Apple.

She reflected on the time after the divorce in an April 2020 interview with   InStyle . “That time was intense. It was a lot of attention, and I had a little child on top of it. We had some funny moments out and about in public. So many people I didn’t know became my friends and helped us out, and that’s what I love about the city,” she said.