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| Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes |
Cruise's publicist said the actor was "deeply saddened" by Katie Holmes' divorce filing this week, and a source close to the "Rock of Ages" star told ABC News that Holmes' decision came as a "complete surprise."
33 The Magic Number For Cruise?
Curiously all of Cruise's marriages ended when his ex-wives were 33 years old.
The previous times Cruise has gotten divorced, he was in control. He filed for divorce from actress Mimi Rogers in January 1990 after three years of marriage. She seemed to get over it quickly. In October 1990, she told the Associated Press, "As far as I know, we're divorced, but I've been so busy on this new film that I haven't had time to check, so I'm not sure. I bet that sounds pretty silly, huh?"
Later on, she seemed to loathe the fact that she was ever married to the mega movie star.
''[I'm] waiting for the moment when I don't have to talk about that [blankety-blank] name anymore," she told People magazine in 1995.
Cruise filed for divorce from his second wife, Nicole Kidman, in February 2001 after she miscarried their baby (they had previously adopted two children). He dropped the bomb less than two months after they renewed their vows on their 10-year anniversary, Christmas Eve 2000.
Kidman broke down on Oprah Winfrey's talk show in May 2001, calling the situation a "nightmare."
"I think that divorce is hard for anyone. It's a nightmare, it just is, and you can pretend you're fine," she said. "And days you're great [and] days you're not great."
In a written response to a divorce petition filed by Cruise on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, Kidman said she was stunned when he told her that he no longer wanted to be married, and allegedly begged him to stay and seek marriage counseling. He refused and left for good, according to her response.
When asked by Winfrey whether she thought she would always be married, Kidman timidly replied, "Yeah."
"I've had a blessed life," she said. "I've always thought [if] something bad is going to happen, something bad is going to happen. But then something really bad happened. A number of really bad things happened. You go, 'I'm dealing with it. I'm stronger than I thought.'"
Kidman is now happily married to country singer Keith Urban. They have two children together.
Given how adoringly Cruise has spoken about Holmes throughout their relationship -- he told the May issue of Playboy, "I'm just happy, and I have been since the moment I met her" -- he may take a while to get back to his eccentric, couch-jumping self. But the last time this happened, his first ex-wife voiced her confidence in Mr. Mission Impossible's ability to rebound.
"Tom is very strong -- he handles stress," Rogers told People magazine in 2001. "He's human. He has a temper. He blows up sometimes, whatever, but it's not like he can't deal with it."
By SHEILA MARIKAR (@SheilaYM)
