During a 13-minute montage of Tom Cruise career highlight clips, which was played to a standing ovation at the “Top Gun: Maverick” premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Thursday, one notable person from the mega-star’s personal and professional life was left on the cutting room floor.
That was Cruise’s second wife, Nicole Kidman. The acclaimed Oscar-winning actor co-starred with Cruise in three films, was married to him for 11 years, and is the mother of his two oldest children.
Cruise and Kidman split in a bitter 2001 divorce, and it’s been widely reported that Kidman’s refusal to become a devoted member of the Church of Scientology — like her husband — was a factor in their breakup.
When it comes to Cruise’s embrace of Scientology and his powerful role in the cult-like organization, investigative reports, a book and an Emmy-winning 2015 HBO documentary portray him in a less than flattering light. The many reports also allege that the organization had disturbing influence over his marriage to Kidman.
Cruise is Scientology’s most famous celebrity member, and he is close friends with its leader, David Miscavige. According to the 2013 book, “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief,” as well as the same-titled 2015 HBO documentary, Scientology leaders became concerned that Kidman could influence Cruise to leave the organization. Both works also suggest that Cruise stood by as Scientology leaders oversaw Kidman’s phone being wiretapped and worked to turn their children, Isabella and Connor, against her.
With this backstory, it’s perhaps not surprising that Cannes organizers would present a Kidman-free version of Cruise’s reality. Right now, Cruise is being held up as the savior of a struggling film industry, so many might not want to dwell on the controversial parts of his history.
Industry leaders and cinema fans hope that a successful “Top Gun” sequel will restore the public’s love of movies and in movie stars. Those movie fans include Prince William and Kate Middleton, who welcomed Cruise to “Top Gun’s” glittering premiere in London Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Cannes festival’s reception of Cruise was “wildly over the top,” even by “the extravagant standards of Cannes,” the Hollywood Reporter said. Eight French fighter jets zoomed above the premiere, and festival organizers played the clip reel of Cruise’s filmography before presenting him with a surprise Palme d’Or.
As Variety reported, there was “nary a shot of Kidman” in that filmography, not in clips from “Days of Thunder,” Cruise and Kidman’s first film together, nor in “Far and Away,” the sweeping historical epic they co-starred in, playing Irish immigrants.
Most notably, Kidman doesn’t make an appearance in any clips from “Eyes Wide Shut,” the Stanley Kubrick-directed erotic drama that was built around her and Cruise playing a couple in a troubled marriage. Instead of sharing anything from the pair’s “wrenching confessional moments in the movie,” the Cannes montage only offered a glimpse of Cruise removing a mask, presumably during the film’s extravagant underworld orgy scene, Variety said.
Cruise, however, briefly mentioned Kidman in a related Master Class event, at which he was asked about how he navigated the emotionally intense scenes in “Eyes Wide Shut.” Cruise said: “We worked together to find the tone: (Stanley Kubrick), Nic and I,” Variety reported.
Nonethless, troubled marriages have been a feature of Cruise’s romantic history. To some extent that’s due to his involvement in Scientology, according to “Going Clear” and other investigations, including a 2012 Vanity Fair story.
Before Kidman, Cruise was married to and divorced from actress Mimi Rogers, who introduced him to Scientology in 1986, when the first “Top Gun” made him the biggest movie star in the world. After his divorce from Kidman, he married Katie Holmes, a marriage that also ended in divorce in 2012. Holmes reportedly became concerned about the organization’s purported plan to exercise control over the upbringing and education of their daughter, Suri.
The book and film “Going Clear” showed how Scientology leaders facilitated the breakup of Cruise’s first marriage to Mimi Rodgers so he could marry Kidman, the 21-year-old Australian actress he had fallen in love with while making “Days of Thunder.”
In his book and film, Lawrence Wright explained how Miscavige wanted to keep Cruise happy. He made sure that Cruise and Kidman were spoiled with luxuries: A special bungalow at the church’s Gold Base, the organization’s headquarters in Riverside County. He also made sure they had use of a private chef, a high-end gym, and an expensively rehabilitated tennis court.
Wright also recounted a famous story about how Miscavige heard about Cruise and Kidman’s fantasy of running through a field of wildflowers together. He ordered low-ranking “Sea Org” members to create a meadow by planting one in the desert.
Early in the marriage, Kidman seemed eager to give Scientology a try, according to a 2019 report from the Daily Beast. She studied Scientology courses and worked her way up the so-called Scientology ladder, the Daily Beast said.
At some point, she pulled away from Scientology and Cruise seemed to distance himself as well, Wright reported. Miscavige blamed Kidman and viewed her as a “gold digger who was faking Scientology,” Wright said. Miscavige became hopeful that the organization could “peel” Cruise away from Kidman, Wright added.
In the documentary, Marty Rathbun, a former high-ranking Scientology executive who left the church in 2004, said he was told to “facilitate the breakup with Nicole Kidman.”
Rathbun alleged to Wright that the church took a number of measures to convince Cruise to cut ties with Kidman, including by putting Cruise through “auditing” day and night, where he allegedly revealed information about his sex life.
In the film, Rathbun further alleged that Cruise became concerned about who Kidman was talking to and asked Scientology leaders to tap her phone. Through his lawyers, Cruise denied the allegation to the film’s producers.
By early 2001, Cruise decided himself that he was done with the marriage, Wright wrote. “Cruise never offered a public explanation for the divorce, and Kidman herself was clearly surprised by his decision,” Wright wrote.
Kidman later revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage two months after Cruise moved out, Wright said. Kidman also pleaded with Cruise to undergo marriage counseling at the church, but he refused, publicly declaring “Nic knows exactly why we are getting a divorce.”
After the divorce, Cruise was awarded the church’s highest honor, the Freedom Medal of Valor, in 2004, Wright said. The church also worked to turn Cruise’s children with Kidman against her.
Initially, Cruise and Kidman split custody of their children, but the children soon chose to live exclusively with their father, Wright wrote. This is because another top-ranking Scientology staff member, Tommy Davis, quietly worked to convince Isabella and Connor that their mother was a “sociopath,” Rathbun told Wright.
“Tommy told them over and over again their mother was a sociopath and after a while they believed him,” Rathbun recalled, Wright reported. “They had daily sessions with Tommy. I was there. I saw it.”
Since the divorce, Kidman has said little about her marriage to Cruise or their divorce. She has talked about how she immediately felt electricity when she first met him and told the New York Times in 2020 that they were happy during the intense two years they filmed “Eyes Wide Shut” in the U.K.
Isabella and Connor were raised as Scientologists and, like their father, remain devoted to the organization. In a 2018 interview with an Australian magazine, Kidman acknowledged that her children’s Scientology faith put a distance between them.
“They are adults,” Kidman said in the interview with Australia’s Who magazine. “They are able to make their own decisions. They have made choices to be Scientologists and as a mother, it’s my job to love them.”
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