Charismatic. Successful. A full head of hair and an estimated £475 million fortune. When it comes to eligible bachelors, Tom Cruise is, at first glance, quite the catch —albeit one who, as the Mail revealed yesterday, has set his sights on a new love.
Cruise, 61, was pictured with socialite Elsina Khayrova, 36, the daughter of a Russian MP and ex-wife of an oligarch, at a party in London’s Mayfair, with one guest describing the star as ‘besotted’.
So far, so enviable, not least because Cruise is a self-declared die-hard romantic, claiming in 2004 that he ‘will never be down with love. Ever. I’m the guy who loves relationships. I love women.’ Which, on closer inspection, is perhaps why dating Cruise can prove, well, something of a Mission Impossible.
For one thing, the thrice-divorced Scientologist has a long and bizarre history of reportedly being infatuated by women with whom no relationship materialises.
They include Vanessa Kirby, his co-star in Mission: Impossible 6, The Mummy co-star Annabelle Wallis, while she was dating Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara and Kingsman star Sofia Boutella. Exhausted? Brace yourself for what happens when a relationship is confirmed, because the Cruise love-o-meter goes into overdrive…
So gawky… but an expert smoocher
A gawky Cruise, unknown and still using his birth name, was 18 when he dated actress Melissa Gilbert in 1981.
‘Actually, when I dated him he was Tom Mapother still. It was when he first moved to Los Angeles and I think I was . . . 16 maybe or 17?’
Gilbert, a child star in the 70s who received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame for her much-loved role as Laura in TV’s Little House On The Prairie, recently told podcast host Andy Cohen: ‘I did not have sex with him. We made out, but honestly, there was no sex.
‘He was a good kisser, but you know, he was like a struggling, starving actor and I was working,’ said Gilbert, now 59. Cruise’s legendary romancing had yet to take off and his financial situation was such that, she added: ‘I actually bought him his first set of dishes!’ After shooting to fame in Risky Business in 1983, he and co-star Rebecca De Mornay (above) had what fellow star Curtis Armstrong described in his 2017 memoir as an ‘intense affair’.
Neither De Mornay nor Cruise confirmed it.
‘Hot and heavy’ courtship with superstar Cher
Long before Cruise started dating women decades his junior, he was a toyboy, courtesy of a bizarre courtship with singer Cher, 16 years his senior. They met at Madonna’s 1985 wedding to Sean Penn, then crossed paths at a White House fundraising event. ‘We didn’t go out till way later, but there definitely was a connection there,’ said Cher in 2018.
At 39 and divorced from Sonny Bono and Greg Allman, Cher was an established celebrity; Cruise was 23, his star in ascendance. Cher recalled: ‘He was shy. He said he felt like such a boob in school and nobody talked to him. We went on a date once for dinner in a New York restaurant and the waitress was from his old school.
‘He told me she never talked to him back in school, but now he was recognised he got all her attention.’
Nonetheless, Cher told Oprah Winfrey she was ‘crazy about him’, the audience cheering as she recalled a ‘long night’ in his arms. In 2013, she described their fling as ‘pretty hot and heavy’, telling talk show host Andy Cohen that he was in her ‘top five’ lovers.
Their romance ended, however, when Cruise met the woman who was to become wife No 1: Mimi Rogers.
First wife he cared about ‘more than anything in the world’
Cruise and actress Mimi Rogers, six years his senior, met at a dinner party in 1985.
Recollections of what happened next vary. Cruise told Rolling Stone Mimi was ‘dating a friend’, while Mimi, from a family of Scientologists thought to have introduced Cruise to the controversial religion, said they were both single and set up, saying: ‘And we said, ‘Aw, what the heck. OK’.’
The couple (left) married in May 1987 in a small ceremony they referred to, bizarrely, as The Project, with actor Emilio Estevez as best man.
The following year, Rogers, an established star who appeared in 1987’s Someone To Watch Over Me with Kevin Costner, described feeling ‘contentment and security’ in her marriage, while in an unfortunately timed interview that came out days after their split in 1990, Cruise declared: ‘I care about my wife more than anything in the world.’
So what went wrong?
Rogers says their often-exaggerated age gap and being referred to as ‘Tom Cruise’s wife’ was an issue, but perhaps more surprisingly told Playboy, in comments she later claimed had been misinterpreted, that: ‘Tom was seriously thinking of becoming a monk.
‘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.’
And she added: ‘My instrument needed tuning.’
…until ‘instant lust’ with Nicole led to erotic scenes on screen
On meeting Nicole Kidman on the set of Days Of Thunder, Cruise felt ‘instant lust’ and the two married on Christmas Eve 1990 at a private ceremony in Telluride, Colorado.
What Cruise described in the early days as a ‘totally physical’ obsession was mutual. In 2002 Nicole told Vanity Fair she ‘fell madly, passionately in love,’ so ‘consumed’ by their relationship that she abandoned her ‘plan’ for life. They adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, and became one of Hollywood’s hottest couples, their chemistry culminating in their appearances in Stanley Kubrick’s erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut. Cruise is said to have bombarded her with love notes and flowers when, she would later say, ‘all I wanted was a cheeseburger’.
After they released a joint statement announcing their divorce in 2001, drily citing ‘difficulties inherent in divergent careers’ she was captured throwing her arms in the air euphorically, and, at three and a half inches taller than her 5ft 7in ex, made the barbed comment: ‘Well I can wear heels now!’ Ouch.
Is it Ms Cruz — or the new Mrs Cruise?
After Nicole, Cruise quickly found love with sultry Penelope Cruz (right), 12 years his junior, whom he met on the set of 2001 thriller Vanilla Sky.
At one point the wedding wheels appeared back in motion when, asked if he’d consider marrying the Spanish actress, he replied ‘yeah definitely’.
But Penelope, now 49, often shooting in different corners of the globe to Cruise, was said to have struggled to win over his children, and the actor can’t have helped matters when, during their relationship, he told reporters: ‘I have always loved Nic and I always will.’
The pair announced their split in early 2004. Cruise’s sister and publicist Lee Anne DeVette described it as ‘amicable’, while Cruz’s spokesman Robert Garlock, said they ‘remain good friends and still talk often’.
Ever the optimist, Cruise appeared undaunted in his quest for wife No 3, saying he hoped to find someone who enjoyed ‘riding motorcycles and flying aeroplanes’.
Claims over ‘audition’ to be his wife
In 2012, Vanity Fair said British activist and actress Nazanin Boniadi, now 42, was auditioned by the Church Of Scientology to become Cruise’s wife, as it feared he was losing touch with the religion — an allegation denied by it and Cruise.
According to claims in 2015 documentary Going Clear, Nazanin was encouraged to dump her boyfriend in 2004 and, she said, was isolated from her family.
Their relationship cooled after something Nazanin said to the church’s leader, David Miscavige, was misconstrued as an insult.
It ended in January 2005, with Nazanin (pictured last year), a privately educated refugee whose family moved from Iran to Britain when she was a baby, confessing her devastation to a friend.
She soon left the Church Of Scientology, went on to appear in thrillers Homeland and Counterpart, and in 2014 called herself a ‘non-practising Muslim’.
A spokesperson for Cruise denied Vanity Fair’s claims, saying: ‘Lies in a different font are still lies — designed to sell magazines.’
Sofa-jumping for Katie and a fairytale wedding
Cruise couldn’t have made his feelings for actress Katie Holmes any clearer.
Reportedly recommended as a prospective partner by Scientology leader David Miscavige (although this is denied by the church), Cruise demonstrated his love by jumping on Oprah Winfrey’s sofa live on TV in May 2005.
Yet the interview paled in comparison to the proposal. After having the Eiffel Tower cleared, he popped the question on one knee with a ‘proposal script’ he’d rewritten half a dozen times.
Afterwards he told the French Press ‘today is a magnificent day for me,’ as Holmes blushed, seemingly unrecognisable to her family.
Their £2 million wedding ceremony in November 2006 was held in the 15th-century Odescalchi castle in Italy, with opera singer Andrea Bocelli serenading, the Beckhams and J-Lo among the guests and Miscavige as best man.
But rumours ‘TomKat’ was in trouble surfaced when gossip site TMZ reported the actress was unhappy by Scientology demands, including the suggestion women should give birth silently so as not to alarm the baby.
Katie filed for divorce in 2012, landing full custody of daughter Suri, now 17.
More quirky behaviour and Tom’s brilliant British co-star
Cruise’s reputation for quirkiness continues — he reportedly won’t let anyone run alongside him in action films, told members of the U.S. navy ‘not to talk or look at him’ on the set of Top Gun: Maverick (disputed by a navy representative) and is partial to a game of hide and seek.
So it would take a brave woman to assume the status of his next lover. In 2020, the honour appeared to go to his Mission Impossible co-star, British actress Hayley Atwell, 41, with whom he reportedly ‘hit it off from day one’. A source told The Sun: ‘They’ve been meeting up after hours and she’s been to his London pad. They get on brilliantly and seem very happy.’
Yet they reportedly separated the next year and, in July, Hayley dismissed rumours of their relationship as ‘weird’, asking: ‘Why are things being assumed or projected on to me about my relationship with my work colleague and boss?’
She is now engaged to music producer Ned Wolfgang Kelly, a ‘sober, vegetarian pagan’ who might sound eccentric but compared to Cruise, perhaps, is positively ordinary.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
