A true ’90s power couple. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman‘s romance didn’t last, but their relationship remains a subject of fascination for movie fans around the world.
The Oscar winner and the Mission: Impossible actor met in early 1990 while filming Tony Scott‘s Days of Thunder, in which Cruise played race car driver Cole Trickle and Kidman appeared as his love interest, Dr. Claire Lewicki. Some critics thought the film was too similar to 1986’s Top Gun, which also starred Cruise under the direction of Scott, but the romance developing between its two young stars quickly eclipsed any negative press.
Less than one year after finalizing his divorce from Mimi Rogers, Cruise married Kidman in December 1990 during a private ceremony held on Christmas Eve. The low-key event was attended by their family members and held in Telluride, Colorado.
“I was so young when I got married,” Kidman told Red magazine in 2016, reflecting on her marriage to Cruise. The Moulin Rouge! actress was 23 at the time, while the Top Gun: Maverick producer was 28. “I look back now and I’m like, ‘What?’”
Shortly after their wedding, the couple worked together again on Ron Howard‘s drama Far and Away, which hit theaters in 1992. That same year, the duo adopted daughter Isabella shortly after her birth. In 1995, they adopted son Connor, who later starred in the films Seven Pounds and Red Dawn.
Cruise and Kidman collaborated for a third time on Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut, which premiered in 1999. “We were happily married through that,” the Hours actress told The New York Times in 2020, reflecting on where she stood with Cruise while making the controversial movie. “We would go go-kart racing after [intense] scenes. We’d rent out a place and go racing at three in the morning.”
Less than two years after the movie’s release, however, the couple announced their separation. “Citing the difficulties inherent in divergent careers which constantly keep them apart, they concluded that an amicable separation seemed best for both of them at this time,” a rep for the duo said in a February 2001 statement.
The Jerry Maguire actor later moved on with Penélope Cruz before marrying Katie Holmes in 2006. Cruise and the Dawson’s Creek alum, who share daughter Suri (born in 2006), split in 2012.
Kidman, for her part, was briefly engaged to Lenny Kravitz in 2003. In June 2006, she wed country star Keith Urban, with whom she shares daughters Sunday Rose (born in 2008) and Faith (born in 2010).
Despite the end of her relationship with Cruise, Kidman has said she’s not bothered by the perpetual interest in their romance.
“I was young. I think I offered it up?” the Big Little Lies alum told Harper’s Bazaar in September 2021 when asked whether the continued fascination bothers her. “Maybe I’ve gotten a bit more trepidatious, but I’m always trying to be as open as possible. I just prefer to live in the world that way.”
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Keep scrolling for a look back at Cruise and Kidman’s relationship:
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1990
The twosome met while filming Days of Thunder, which also starred Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid and Cary Elwes. “I remember being so nervous and seeing Tom Cruise drive up in a Porsche,” Kidman 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.”
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December 1990
The Interview With the Vampire actor and the Australian actress tied the knot in a private ceremony attended by their family members less than one year after meeting. “He basically swept me off my feet,” Kidman told Vanity Fair in 2002. “I fell madly, passionately in love. And as happens when you fall in love, my whole plan in terms of what I wanted for my life — I was like, ‘Forget it. This is it.’ I was consumed by it, willingly.”
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March 1991
Kidman and Cruise attended their first Oscars together. Days of Thunder was nominated for Best Sound but lost to Dances With Wolves.
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1992
The Jack Reacher star and the Emmy winner adopted daughter Isabella shortly after her birth. “I was scared to death. Scared to death!” Cruise told Vanity Fair in 1994, joking about changing his daughter’s diapers after her arrival. “I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.”
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October 1994
Cruise opened up about fatherhood and his marriage to Kidman in a Vanity Fair cover story. “It was that special connection when you recognize your soul mate,” he recalled of meeting the Stepford Wives actress. “She is a person who understands. It was as if a whole new life had started for me.”
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November 1994
The duo made a splash at the premiere of Cruise’s film Interview With the Vampire, which also starred Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. “He’s quite eccentric,” Kidman told Vanity Fair of her husband one month earlier. “He’s just an odd one. He has his own little quirks and mannerisms. He’s kind of wild — and I love that.”
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1995
The pair adopted their second child, son Connor, shortly after his birth.
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November 1996
The couple began filming Eyes Wide Shut, which would be Kubrick’s final film. “We had two kids and were living in a trailer on the lot primarily, making spaghetti because Stanley liked to eat with us sometimes,” Kidman told The New York Times in 2020. “We were working with the greatest filmmaker and learning about our lives and enjoying our lives on set.”
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March 1997
Kidman accompanied Cruise to the Oscars, where he was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Jerry Maguire. He lost to Geoffrey Rush for Shine.
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July 1999
The couple attended the premiere of Eyes Wide Shut, their final collaboration together as actors. Cruise later coproduced Kidman’s film The Others, which hit theaters after their 2001 divorce.
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March 2000
The duo were stars of the Oscars red carpet, posing for photos ahead of the ceremony. Cruise was up for his third Academy Award, scoring a nod for Magnolia, but he lost to Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules.
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May 2000
Kidman joined Cruise at the premiere of Mission: Impossible 2.
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February 2001
Cruise filed for divorce from Kidman, citing irreconcilable differences for the split. Former Scientologist Mike Rinder claimed in 2022 that the church played a role in the couple’s breakup by creating a “distance” between them. The apostate also alleged that the Church of Scientology wiretapped Kidman’s phone to monitor her influence on Cruise, who is one of the religion’s most prominent members.
The church denied Rinder’s claims in a September 2022 statement, saying: “The Church never ordered or participated in any illegal wiretapping. Mike Rinder is an inveterate liar who seeks to profit from his dishonesty. He supports himself by orchestrating the harassment of his former Church and its leader through false police reports, incendiary propaganda and fraudulent media stories.”
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November 2007
Kidman clarified that she did not have a miscarriage early in her marriage to Cruise, but rather had one early in their relationship. “It was wrongly reported,” she told Marie Claire, explaining that she’d had an ectopic pregnancy when she was 23. “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. It was incredibly traumatic for me. Sometimes you share your grief.”
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May 2018
The Aquaman actress opened up about her miscarriage she experienced during her relationship with Cruise in an interview with Tatler. “I know the yearning. That yearning. It’s a huge, aching yearning,” she told the outlet. “And the loss! The loss of a miscarriage is not talked about enough. That’s massive grief to certain women.”
