Tom Cruise might be a Hollywood legend and one of the highest-paid stars on the planet, but when it comes to love, his story is far from picture-perfect.
Over the years, the Mission: Impossible actor has been linked to a string of high-profile women, including Cher, Penélope Cruz, and Hayley Atwell.
Most recently, he’s been dating Blade Runner 2049 actress Ana de Armas. The age gap raised some eyebrows, but the two have been spotted looking completely smitten.
Beyond his long list of girlfriends, Cruise is also known for his headline-making marriages. He’s walked down the aisle three times and has children with two of his former wives.
Still, even with all the chemistry and attention, none of his relationships—married or otherwise—have lasted for long.
Here’s everything you need to know about Tom Cruise’s wives—from his first to his third—and how each marriage came to an end.
First Wife, Mimi Rogers
Cruise met the Gung Ho actress Mimi Rogers at a dinner party while she was still dating a friend of his. Cruise later told Rolling Stone he was instantly struck, calling her “extremely bright.” Rogers, on the other hand, hinted in an interview with the Sun Sentinel that their friends may have played matchmaker.
At the time, Rogers was already an established actress, known for films like Gung Ho and The Rapture. She had also previously been married to Scientology counselor Jim Rogers and is widely believed to have introduced Cruise to the Church of Scientology.
“She took him under her wing,” Cruise biographer Wensley Clarkson told Entertainment Weekly in 2000. Rogers eventually walked away from the church, but Cruise remained deeply involved and has been one of its most vocal supporters ever since.
Wedding
Cruise and his ex-spouse Rogers quietly tied the knot on May 9, 1987, in upstate New York. The ceremony was kept under wraps, with Rogers later revealing to the Sun Sentinel that they used the code name “The Project” for their wedding plans. She described it as “very small, very private and completely normal.”
Cruise’s longtime friend and The Outsiders co-star Emilio Estevez served as his best man. At the time of the wedding, Cruise was just 24, while Rogers was 32.
In another Rolling Stone interview published in January 1990, The Last Samurai actor was still gushing about his wife. “Since I’ve been with her, it’s opened me up a lot. I think it’s helped me be a better actor,” he said. “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.”
But the tone shifted almost immediately.
They Divorced in 1990
Just days after that interview was published, the couple dropped a bombshell: they were getting a divorce. In a joint statement, they said, “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.”
Rogers later gave her own take on the split, brushing off rumors that she simply grew bored of Cruise. “Is that the story, that I was bored with that child and threw him over, chewed him up and spat him out?” she fired back in a 1993 Playboy interview.
She didn’t stop there. Rogers went on to suggest that Cruise was leaning toward celibacy for spiritual reasons. “Tom was seriously thinking of becoming a monk,” she said in the same interview. “At least for that period of time, it looked as though marriage wouldn’t fit into his overall spiritual need. And he thought he had to be celibate to maintain the purity of his instrument.” Then came the zinger: “My instrument needed tuning.”
The comment caused a stir. According to one of Rogers’ friends, “Tom, his agents, and certain studios were furious about what Mimi said. She was told in no uncertain terms that her career would be over unless she put things right.” Rogers later claimed she had been misinterpreted.
The age gap between them—Rogers was six years older—also drew constant attention. “The stardom wasn’t really a problem,” she told The Telegraph in 2001. “What did annoy me, though, was the age thing… If Tom and I were still married, the tabloids would probably have me in my sixties by now.”
She reportedly walked away with a $4 million settlement.
Second Spouse: Nicole Kidman
Cruise met his second wife, Nicole Kidman, while filming Days of Thunder in 1990. She played Dr. Claire Lewicki, a confident neurosurgeon opposite Cruise’s race car driver, Cole Trickle. Their on-screen chemistry quickly spilled into real life, and by the end of the year, they were married.
Kidman later admitted she was completely starstruck when they first met. “I remember being so nervous and seeing Tom Cruise drive up in a Porsche,” she recalled during a 2016 interview on The Jess Cagle Show. “He got out of the car and walked through the door, and I was like, ‘Ah.’ My jaw dropped.”
The couple went on to star in two more films together: the 1992 romantic epic Far and Away and the 1999 psychological drama Eyes Wide Shut, directed by Stanley Kubrick.
They Got Married on Christmas Eve
Less than a year after finalizing his divorce from his first spouse, Rogers, Cruise married Kidman in a quiet ceremony on Christmas Eve, 1990. The intimate wedding took place in Telluride, Colorado, with only close family members in attendance. 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 1995. “So it started on lust.” Cruise didn’t disagree—he described it as “instant lust” and called marrying Kidman “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 absolutely knew—this is the person to be able to share all of who I am with.”
A decade into the marriage, Kidman still seemed all in. “All I can say is that I hope we are together when we are 80,” she said in a 2000 interview with Talk magazine. “I can’t say we will be, but I will be so devastated if we are not.”
Why It Fell Apart
On February 5, 2001, a spokesperson for the couple confirmed their separation. Just two days later, Cruise officially filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The split was finalized later that year.
As time passed, Kidman opened up about why things didn’t work. “I was so young,” she told Vanity Fair in 2013, reflecting on getting married at 23. “With no disrespect to what I had with Tom, I’ve met my great love now… I was a child, really, when I got married. And I needed to grow up.”
She also said spending time alone after their split helped her realize what she wanted from love and from herself.
But not all the blame fell on inexperience. In 2022, a former Scientology executive, Mike Rinder, alleged that the Church of Scientology had a hand in pushing the couple apart. He claimed the church pressured Cruise into more auditing sessions and even wiretapped Kidman’s phone to monitor her influence. “They created distance between them,” Rinder said.
The Church later denied all of Rinder’s claims, calling him “an inveterate liar” and insisting they never engaged in any wiretapping or illegal behavior.
Kids and Miscarriage
During their decade-long marriage, Cruise and his ex-wife, Kidman, adopted two children. Their daughter, Isabella, was adopted at birth on December 22, 1992. Three years later, they welcomed their son, Connor, born on January 17, 1995.
Kidman also went through difficult moments that weren’t widely known at the time. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, she revealed that early in their marriage, she experienced an ectopic pregnancy—a serious condition where the embryo implants outside the uterus. Toward the end of the marriage, she suffered a miscarriage.
She also pointed out how the media had gotten it wrong. “It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story,” she said. “So it’s huge news, and it didn’t happen. I had a miscarriage at the end of my marriage, but I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of my marriage.”
Third Wife: Katie Holmes
Cruise crossed paths with his soulmate, Katie Holmes, in April 2005 to discuss a possible role in Mission: Impossible 3. But whatever the meeting was meant to be, romance took over almost immediately.
Just weeks later, on April 27, the two were photographed together in Rome, going public for the first time. The media quickly branded them “TomKat,” and their relationship took off as a full-blown tabloid frenzy.
Then came the moment no one forgot. In May of that year, Cruise appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and famously jumped on her yellow couch, declaring his love for Holmes with over-the-top enthusiasm. That clip went viral before “viral” was even a thing.
They Got Engaged in June
Less than two months after going public, Cruise and his better half, Holmes, got engaged. On June 16, 2005, the Hollywood heartthrob popped the question in Paris, choosing the Eiffel Tower as the setting for his big moment.
The proposal happened at a restaurant on the Tower’s second floor. He didn’t get down on one knee, but he did present her with a five-carat yellow diamond ring. Holmes said yes, and the engagement was announced that same day.
Tom and Katie Tied the Knot in November 2006
On November 18, 2006, the power couple got married in a lavish Scientology ceremony at the 15th-century Castello Orsini-Odescalchi in Bracciano, Italy, just outside of Rome. Holmes was 27, and Cruise was 44.
The guest list was stacked with A-listers, including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Jim Carrey, Victoria and David Beckham, JJ Abrams, and Jerry Bruckheimer. Holmes wore a custom Giorgio Armani gown with an ivory silk train, lace detailing, and Swarovski beaded crystals. Cruise wore a navy-blue Armani tux to match the grandeur of the moment.
Despite all the buzz and mixed reactions around their whirlwind romance, Cruise was unapologetically in love. “People are going to do what they’re going to do,” he told MTV News months before the wedding. “This woman is exceptional, she’s special, she’s extraordinary… I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m happy, man!”
Their Daughter, Suri
Before tying the knot, Cruise and Holmes shared some big news—on October 6, 2005, they announced they were expecting their first child together.
On April 18, 2006, Holmes gave birth to a baby girl at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and they named her Suri.
In a joint statement, the duo shared the meaning behind the name: in Hebrew, Suri means “princess,” and in Persian, it means “red rose.”
Their Years-Long Marriage Ended in 2012
On June 29, 2012, Holmes filed for divorce from her husband, Tom Cruise, marking the end of their six-year marriage. It was Cruise’s third divorce and Holmes’s first. Just two weeks later, on July 9, their lawyers finalized a settlement.
The Dawson’s Creek actress filed with a prenup already in place—reportedly drafted by her attorney father, Martin Holmes. After the news broke, Cruise’s attorney called it “a private matter,” adding that Katie’s top priority was “her daughter’s best interest.” His rep shared that the actor was “deeply saddened” by the split.
A year later, in November 2013, Cruise admitted to HuffPost that his wife, Katie, had left him partly to protect their daughter, Suri, from Scientology. Following the divorce, Suri stopped practicing and began living full-time with her mother.
Holmes, for her part, chose not to dwell on the past. In a 2014 interview with People, she said, “I don’t want that moment in my life to define me, to be who I am… I was an actor before, an actor during, and an actor now.”
