The Rumors That Surrounded Tom Cruise And Nicole Kidman's Hasty Wedding

Before Tom Cruise's manic Oprah Winfrey sofa jumping, fist-pumping, and declarations of undying love for Katie Holmes spawned the moniker Tomkat, he was one half of Cruiseman. Nicole Kidman and the "Mission Impossible" star were the Hollywood power spouses of the nineties. They embarked on a whirlwind romance (sound familiar?) that sparked tabloid rumors after Cruise and Kidman said "I do" during a hasty, secret marriage on Christmas Eve, 1990.

Kidman and Cruise's relationship had been the subject of speculation from the moment they started dating. Per US Weekly, the two actors fell madly in lust on the set of 1989's "Days of Thunder." The timing of their relationship triggered accusations that Kidman had come between Cruise and his now ex-wife Mimi Rogers, as the lovestruck stars were married before the ink was barely dry on Cruise and Rogers' divorce papers. It didn't help that Andrew Morton claimed in his unauthorized biography that Cruise had informed Rogers they were over in December of 1989, several months after he'd first met Kidman.

Rogers seemingly ended the rumors, though, when she told Playboy (via E! News) that Cruise's depleted mojo led to the split and not his new love interest. "[Tom thought] he had to be celibate to maintain the purity of his instrument," she said. "My instrument needed tuning." So what about Kidman's instrument? Didn't that need tuning too? Well, that was the subject of just one of the rumors that surrounded Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's hasty wedding.

Whenever Tom Cruise bags himself a new spouse, it sends the gossip mill into overdrive. And the rumors were flying thick and fast following Cruise and Nicole Kidman's hasty wedding. According to Entertainment Weekly, the tabloids claimed that the couple rushed to the altar because Kidman was pregnant. When that was firmly shot down by the couple's reps, conjecture resurfaced that Cruise is actually gay — and Kidman was acting as a beard to protect his hetero heartthrob image.

Rumors about Cruise's sexuality have plagued him for years —  with the actor addressing them in an interview with Playboy (via Yahoo! Entertainment). He said there was zero point in constantly denying tabloid gossip and that he preferred to pick his fights. "With certain [stories], you have to go, 'Okay, you crossed a line, and now you have the attention of my lawyers,'" Cruise said. "They know I mean it, that if I have to, I will sue. But life is not a matter of trying to prove anything to anybody," he continued. The couple ultimately sued a UK newspaper for $500,000 for claiming their marriage was a sham.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that David Miscavige purportedly arranged for Kidman to be Cruise's spouse after becoming concerned about Mimi Rogers' take on Scientology — and then allegedly split Cruise and Kidman up when he became concerned about her. Then there were rumors that the couple wed as a ploy to boost the still relatively unknown Kidman's career.

The rumors surrounding Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's hasty wedding were eventually superseded by rumors surrounding their hasty split. Per MailOnline, they announced they were parting ways in February 2001 after nearly 11 years of marriage — Cruise filed for divorce just two days later. A rep insisted the two actors were still good friends and that they had "great respect" for each other. The rep blamed their hectic work schedules and claimed Cruise and Kidman had decided that separating was the best path for both of them.

That was all news to Kidman, apparently. In an interview with Dujour magazine, Kidman shared the one thing that hurt her the most in their divorce. She claimed she'd been wholly blindsided by Cruise's decision to end things and begged him to give it another go, but he'd refused. "It took me a very long time to heal. It was a shock to my system," she said. In fact, in her reply to his divorce petition, ABC News reported that Kidman "protested [Cruise's] intention to dissolve their marriage and urged him not to leave but to enter marriage counseling with her." But it was mission impossible.

Kidman told Harpers Bazaar that she was probably too young when she married Cruise at just 24 and hadn't been ready for the subsequent emotional rollercoaster and jolting end. "I'm wary at times, and I've been hurt, but at the same time, I much prefer a warm approach rather than a prickly shutdown approach," Kidman said.