Tom Cruise is known as much for his acting as he is for his relationships with Nicole
Kidman, Penelope Cruz , and Katie Holmes.
However, people often forget about Tom's first marriage to Mimi Rogers.
Their relationship moved fast, and their divorce came around even faster.
What was more surprising was the confession that Mimi gave about why she and Tom got a
divorce.
While it might not have anything to do with Scientology, it seems that Tom wanted to dabble
in another belief system that wasn't going to work for Mimi.
Tom Cruise met Mimi Rogers in 1985 at a dinner party while he was busy developing Top Gun.
But, their connection wasn't instantaneous.
At the time, Mimi was actually dating one of Tom's friends.
Nevertheless, Rogers still left an impression on the actor.
Cruise recalled of their first meeting, "I thought she was extremely bright,"
However, Mimi remembers the story of how they first met a little differently.
She claimed that she and Tom were introduced to one another through a mutual friend.
In fact, she also said she wasn't dating anyone when she met Tom, and he wasn't seeing anyone
either.
Their mutual friend had actually introduced them with the idea that they would be a good
match.
Mimi shared, "And we said, 'Aw, what the heck.
OK.'"
The pair soon started dating, and as it turned out, the idea of marriage came about pretty
quickly.
However, Tom's career was skyrocketing after the release of Top Gun in 1986, and his growing
popularity took over their relationship.
The couple had to find a way to work around all the attention that Cruise was getting,
so when it came to planning their marriage, they referred to it as "The Project." - which,
if you ask us, doesn't sound very romantic.
However, in an interview with Rolling Stone just a year before, Tom said, "I don't know
if I could get married."
So it seemed that his relationship with her changed his mind about being a husband.
Interestingly enough, Mimi herself is a second-generation Scientologist, and it was believed that she
was the one who linked him to the belief system.
In the spring of 1987, Cruise and Rogers executed their "project" and tied the knot.
Emilio Estevez was Cruise's best man at the "very small, intimate and beautiful" event.
Despite their attempts at keeping their marriage low-key, it turned out to be a very high-profile
event considering Tom's popularity at the time.
Their
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tom shared that he felt like his relationship with Mimi
made him a better actor.
He explained, "Since I've been with her, it's opened me up a lot … We live a lot of life
together.
We share everything.
That's the best thing about life.
Otherwise you go through it pretty sad and lonely and angry."
Rogers also expressed her newly-wed bliss, saying, "There's a lot of contentment and
security in marriage.
I highly recommend it."
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Tom filed for divorce from Mimi in 1989.
The couple had been married for around two years, and from all the things they had been
saying about one another and their marriage, the news of the divorce came as quite a shock.
What is very interesting, though, is that just two days after Tom filed for divorce,
the production of his film, Days of Thunder, starring his future wife Nicole Kidman, began.
Cruise later confessed that his connection with Kidman
was "instant lust."
Ironically, just days before news of the divorce broke out, another Rolling Stone interview
with Tom was released where he said that he "couldn't imagine being without" Mimi.
He added, "I care about my wife more than anything in the world.
She's my best friend.
I just really like being with her, you know?
I love her."
Naturally, that interview only added to the confusion around the divorce.
So why might there not have been a clear reason for his split from Mimi?
Perhaps when Tom met Nicole, he realized that he had married the wrong person.
Also, considering the fact that a year before he wed Rogers, he had said that he didn't
think he could get married.
So perhaps Cruise felt like he had rushed into things with Mimi without considering
that it might not have been something he wanted to do in the first place.
Following the divorce announcement, Cruise and Rogers released a rather strange statement
to the public.
They shared, "While there have been positive aspects to our marriage, there were some issues
which could not be resolved even after working on them for a period of time."
Even more surprising was that Tom went on to marry Nicole in 1990, just a few months
after his divorce from Mimi was finalized.
Two years later, Cruise told Barbara Walters that while he and Mimi hadn't spoken "in a
couple years," he did "wish her well."
In 1993, Rogers spoke to Playboy and made some pretty jaw-dropping comments about her
ex.
She confessed, "Here's the real story.
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."
She then added that being celibate wasn't going to be something that worked for her
because her own instrument "needed tuning."
We all know that Tom never became a monk; instead, he followed in his ex-wife's footsteps
and became a very active and famous member of Scientology.
If the whole monk story is true, we can only imagine Mimi's surprise when that didn't turn
out to be the case, especially after he wed Kidman so soon after their split.
The actress also spoke about the struggle of being married to one of the most famous
men in the world.
She explained, "You cease to be an individual.
No matter what the article is, it's 'Tom Cruise's wife….'"
She added that she was "waiting for the moment when I don't have to talk about that name
anymore."
Perhaps Mimi was frustrated that rather than being recognized for her own work as an actress,
she was simply seen as "Tom Cruise's wife."
We can only imagine how difficult it must have been for her to feel as though she was
living in her very famous husband's shadow.
However, it seemed as though her marriage and subsequent divorce from Tom continued
to follow her over the next few years.
In a 2001 interview, Mimi shared that "stardom wasn't really a problem" in their marriage.
What had started to annoy her was "the age thing."
She explained, "Every six months, the press seemed to add another year to my age.
If we were still married, the press would have me in my 60s by now."
It's possible that the media had clung to the fact that Mimi is six years older than
Tom, and it was an aspect that they couldn't seem to let go of.
When Cruise went on to marry Katie Holmes in 2006, Rogers was subjected to another wave
of press surrounding her ex's new marriage.
Mimi shared in an interview shortly after Cruise married Holmes, "Any time anything
happens with him I get a call: 'What do you think of Katie?
What do think about this?'"
Rogers was yet again asked for comment after Cruise and Holmes split in 2012.
"I wish them both the best.
There's not much else to say.
I really do, though."
Interestingly enough, people couldn't help but notice that Tom divorced all of his wives
when they were thirty-three years old.
It could just be a very weird coincidence, but it is a pretty weird fact to note nevertheless.
Since then, Tom has kept his love life out of the spotlight as much as he could.
He was romantically linked to his Mission Impossible 7 co-star, Hayley Atwell . They
began dating around 2020; however, according to reports, they very recently split in July
of 2022.
Hayley reportedly dumped him for a music composer, Ned Wolfgang Kelly.
However, Cruise was spotted with a mystery woman as he attended Adele's concert at Hyde
Park in London just a couple of weeks later.
As for Mimi, she married producer Chris Ciaffa in 2003.
The couple started dating in 1990 - not long after
her divorce from Tom - and were together for thirteen years before deciding to make things
official.
The actress's marriage to Chris marked her third time getting married.
It's possible that when it came to Chris, she wanted to make sure that they were the
real deal before walking down the aisle for the third time.
The couple has now been together for around thirty-two years and has two children together,
Lucy and Charlie.
Tom and Mimi's relationship might have been short-lived, but it will never be forgotten.
Perhaps she paved the way for him into the world of Scientology, which undoubtedly became
a huge part of his life.
Ironically, his belief system was allegedly the reason that both his marriages to Kidman
and Holmes didn't work out.
While we might not have all the details as to why Mimi and Tom's marriage didn't work,
we're glad that she was finally able to find happiness in her marriage to Chris.
Hopefully, Tom will find the right person for him too.
Only time will tell!
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