Tom Cruise has been a movie star for decades, but the three-time divorcé keeps his family world as dad to son Connor and daughters Isabella and Suri extremely private.
Tom Cruise is known for a lot of things, but gabbing about his kids isn’t one of them.
Marriage to Katie Holmes
Tom was in a sharing mood when he started dating the Dawson’s Creek alum in 2005, boisterously telling Oprah Winfrey and her sofa that he was in love with the actress.
“Here’s the thing, you can’t think about it in terms of what people are going to do or say,” he told MTV News that June of the PR perils of wearing his heart on his sleeve. “It’s ‘I want to share my life with this woman. This woman is exceptional, she’s special, she’s extraordinary and I have great respect for her.’ It’s someone who’s saying ‘I’ve got nothing to hide, I’m happy.’ I’m happy, man!”
The Top Gun star proposed atop the Eiffel Tower in June 2005, reportedly within eight weeks of their first date.
Their lavish Nov. 18, 2006, nuptials were held at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy. Suri, Connor and Bella were in attendance, along with the likes of the Beckhams, Jennifer Lopez and then-husband Marc Anthony, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Brooke Shields and spouse Chris Henchy.
Suri Cruise
Tom and Katie’s daughter was born April 18, 2006.
The October 2006 cover of Vanity Fair, first revealed on the CBS Evening News Sept. 5, introduced Suri to the world. The portrait by Annie Leibovitz featured the 3-month-old tucked into her dad’s leather aviator jacket, an homage to Linda McCartney’s famous shot of Paul McCartney with their baby daughter Mary from his 1970 album McCartney.
“She’s a glorious girl,” Katie told the magazine. “She’s the miracle of our life.”
Tom shared that they found the name in a baby book sent to them by friends and just loved it. “We later found out that it meant ‘red rose,’ and that was just a bonus,” he added. “Suri—it was perfect.”
The article noted that the family, including Conor and Bella, were all gathered cozily at Tom’s house in Telluride (which he sold in 2021 for $39.5 million).
“It’s really special to see them holding their little sister,” Katie said. “To hear them talk about all of the fun things they are going to do together.” Added Tom, “It’s very moving to me too. I look at those moments of watching Bella and Connor grow up and you get a sense of what kind of people they are going to be as adults.”
Katie filed for divorce in June 2012, her attorney saying in a statement her “primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.”
Tom’s rep told E! News that he “is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children.”
The proceedings were settled relatively quickly, with both sides agreeing on Suri living primarily with her mom while her dad got generous visitation rights. Katie started splitting time between New York and L.A. and resettled Suri on the East Coast for school.
The Batman Begins actress set about giving her kid the most normal life possible, ferrying her to school and gymnastics like any other Manhattan mom. While the paparazzi never stopped clicking away, Katie shared only a handful of glimpses of Suri on social media over the years. But they also were seen at sporting events and have made many a pilgrimage to Broadway to catch a show.
“My child is the most important person to me, and her upbringing is paramount to my work right now,” she told Town & Country in 2017. “It’s very important that I’m present and she has a stable, innocent childhood. I feel so blessed to do what I do, but there’s nothing in the world better than watching your child succeed.”
At the same time, she said, “Every day, kids get a little further away from you. That’s a positive thing. They should be becoming more independent, but it’s heartbreaking.”
Suri may not have caught the acting bug yet, but she did sing the cover of “Blue Moon” that opens Alone Together, the rom-com her mom was inspired to write during the pandemic and then also starred in and directed. Suri also provided a vocal for her movie Rare Objects.
“I hope she always does something on my films,” Katie told Glamour in March 2023. “I always ask her. But both of those experiences came out of the same sense of what I love about our industry, which is, you have these projects and you become a family with people. And it’s this safe, beautiful, creative space.”
With Suri about to turn 17 at the time, she noted, “What has been really important for me with my daughter, because she was so visible at a young age, is I really like to protect her. I’m very grateful to be a parent, to be her parent. She’s an incredible person.”
