Two decades ago, Tom Cruise was in the process of divorcing his second wife, Nicole Kidman.
Many forget that he instantly found love in the arms of Penélope Cruz . Their whirlwind
romance was more than just a rebound, though.
Tom was planning to propose when Penelope broke things off and left him devastated.
Like so many Hollywood couples before them, Penélope Cruz and Tom Cruise first met on
the set of an erotic science-fiction thriller Vanilla Sky.
Tom portrayed a charming millionaire who fell in love with Penelope’s character, Sofia.
Though Cruise was married to Nicole Kidman when the shooting began (and not when it ended),
he and Cruz have long maintained that their relationship started after the film wrapped.
Tom and Nicole tied the knot a decade before that.
While the couple were married, they adopted two kids and starred together in two movies.
“We had some great times.
And that’s what I think about,” he told Marie Claire.
“Whatever happened, happened, OK?
You move on.”
They filed for divorce in February 2001, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
Who can forget “Nicole Kidman after finalizing divorce” pics?
In July 2001, about six months after Cruise filed the papers, after all the whispers,
rumours and denials, he and Cruz made it official.
Confirmation came, as it so often does in Hollywood, via the actor’s spokeswoman.
“Tom Cruise invited Penélope Cruz to his 39th birthday party on July 6, and they’ve
had a few dates since,” Cruise’s long-time publicist Pat Kingsley told reporters at the
time.
Ironically, Penelope and Tom made their public debut as a couple the same month the divorce
was finalized.
Penélope Cruz has been acting for years, but she’s never been the centre of the American
spotlight until the week she showed up at her new film’s premiere with the oh-so recently
divorced Tom Cruise.
Surely, few Hollywood watchers were discussing the film.
It was the first public event for Cruz and her new boyfriend, whose headline-making divorce
from Kidman was barely a week old.
Following the premiere, she gushed to Good Morning America about what it meant to have
Cruise attend the premiere with her.
“He came and shared it with me,” Cruz said.
“It was special for me that he wanted to share it with me that way.”
And though she said that Cruise “has a huge heart,” she didn’t elaborate on their
romance at the time.
Since Cruz and Cruise started making public appearances so fast after the divorce, many
speculated that they had already been seeing each other before.
However, Penelope claimed that the romance didn’t start at the set of Vanilla Sky but
rather later.
“I’ve never fallen in love with someone I’m working with,” she said back in 2008.
“It’s always been afterwards.
If something becomes friendship, then maybe months later it becomes something else, but
you can never know.
It’s always a mystery.
You can’t plan those things.”
So, we guess we’ll just have to take her word for it.
Though they were fairly private, Cruise and Cruz were always incredibly sweet when they
did open up about their relationship in the press.
For example, during a press conference for Vanilla Sky, she praised Cruise for his “generosity,”
adding, “He cares about everyone that is around him.”
Tom loved to pamper Penelope.
He boasted that she liked his home-cooked meals, and so he cooked for her often.
Sometimes, he’d welcome her home with a bath hot and ready for her.
“She likes my food, so I cook for her.
It’s always the little things I like in a relationship.”
Early signs of Cruise’s couch-jumping tendencies were all over this romance.
We had the Top Gun star manically “blurting out fragments of romantic thoughts” to Vanity
Fair, like “I thought, My God, I’m your boyfriend.
You’re my girlfriend!” and laughing over their homophonic last names: “Cruise and
Cruz!”
The actor was so smitten with Penelope that he was seriously considering proposing to
her.
If she were to accept his proposal, she’d become his third wife.
Cruise had a history of jumping into new marriages soon.
He proposed to Kidman only ten months after his divorce with Mimi Rogers was finalized.
The couple was understandably coy with the media, considering the many false reports
that followed their relationship.
In 2003, Cruz sued Australian magazine New Idea after they ran an article insinuating
that she’d had an affair with a Spanish actor.
It looked like the couple shared even more than people thought at the time.
Tom, known for guarding his reputation with his life, won a $10 million judgment earlier
that year against former gay porn star Chad Slater, who claimed he and the actor had been
lovers.
Before that, he and ex-wife Nicole Kidman won a suit against a British tabloid that
claimed their marriage was a sham to cover up his alleged homosexuality.
Penelope was vindicated in court months later, awarded a $3,200 settlement paid to the charity
of her choosing.
While they undoubtedly enjoyed a lovely honeymoon phase, they weren’t meant to last.
Between listening to late-night calls to his ex-wife and the role of religion in his life,
Cruz reportedly decided that this relationship was not meant to be.
After almost three years together, Cruz and Cruise’s romance came to an end.
Cruise’s publicist assured reporters that the split was “amicable,” while Cruz’s
rep said, “They remain good friends and still talk often,” noting, “There is no
other person involved.”
Speculation that the couple was on the rocks first ignited when Cruz didn’t show up at
the Golden Globes ceremony, where Cruise was nominated for The Last Samurai.
In fact, she had flown to Spain to be with her father that had fallen ill.
“At the time, they were figuring out their relationship,” said the source.
Soon after, however, Cruise and Cruz quietly separated.
According to Standard, Penelope struggled in their relationship because she couldn’t
fit into his family and get his children to accept her.
Additionally, she grew frustrated that Tom Cruise was still regularly talking to Kidman
and said he would always love her.
That’s what supposedly went on behind closed doors.
The official version of their growing trouble in paradise blamed the fact that they were
shooting movies in different parts of the world most of the time.
Consequently, it was growing harder and harder for the two to spend any quality time together.
“The relationship just ran its course, and they decided not to be girlfriend and boyfriend
anymore,” a source told People at the time.
While the insider pointed toward distance as a factor that contributed to Cruz and Cruise’s
breakup, another factor could have been their religious opinions.
A source told Radar Online that Tom had been “head over heels in love” with Penelope
and had planned on proposing, but she wasn’t interested in tying the knot for one major
reason.
“Penelope doesn’t have anything against the Church, but it just wasn’t her thing.
She admired Tom’s dedication to it, but it wasn’t her cup of tea and wasn’t something
she wanted to give her life up for.”
While many celebrities decided to leave the Church of Scientology, Tom Cruise remains
a passionate follower.
That being said, at the time of their split, Cruz’s spokesman said that Cruise’s involvement
with the Church of Scientology didn’t play a part in the breakup, even noting that his
client had “taken church courses, and she’s found them beneficial”.
Reportedly, The Church of Scientology screened at least two dozen women to date Tom Cruise
after his divorce from Nicole Kidman.
In 2006, Cruz defended Scientology and Cruise in an interview with The Guardian.
“I would feel bad with myself if I didn’t say that I was grateful to Scientology because
of what I’ve learned about it,” she explained.
“Tom is a very good man, and I am close to his whole family.
The people who have been good to me, they are untouchable, I am very loyal to the people
who have meant something to me.”
Nevertheless, Cruise wasn’t lonely for long after she broke up with him in 2004.
By the time 2005 rolled by, he was already seeing Katie Holmes.
The two got married and welcomed their daughter Suri in 2006.
They divorced six years later with a bang.
Cruz settled down a decade ago, tying the knot with fellow Spanish actor Javier Bardem
. They welcomed son Leo in 2011 and daughter Luna in 2013.
It’s been 17 years since Tom and Penelope went their separate ways.
There seems to be no animosity between the pair.
They reportedly had an awkward moment bumping into each other at a party in 2009.
“Penelope tapped him on the shoulder and timidly asked, ‘Tom?’
Tom turned around, got visibly flustered and awkwardly said, ‘Oh, hey.
Hi,’ and gave her a small, distant hug before turning back around to his friends.”
Six years later, they were spotted dining together in London, accompanied by Salma Hayek
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