Inside Tom Cruise's Relationship With Kids Isabella, Connor and Suri

Tom Cruise was in the process of divorcing first wife Mimi Rogers when he met Nicole Kidman making the racing movie Days of Thunder in early 1990. He proposed to the Australian actress once he was officially single and they tied the knot that year on Christmas Eve.

"It was that special connection when you recognize your soul mate," Tom told Vanity Fair in 1994. "She is a person who understands. It was as if a whole new life had started for me."

They announced their divorce in February 2001 with a press release citing the "difficulties inherent of diverging careers which constantly keep them apart." Though it's unclear if Nicole agreed with that rationale.

"I'm starting to understand now [why we broke up]," she told Vanity Fair toward the end of 2002. "At the time I didn't."

Her ex, meanwhile, had told the publication earlier that year, "She knows why, and I know why. She's the mother of my children, and I wish her well. And I think that you just move on. And I don't say that lightly. I don't say that with anything."

Tom and Nicole adopted their eldest child, Isabella, when she was born on Dec. 22, 1992.

Admittedly "scared to death" the first time he changed a diaper, Tom told VF in 1994 that he and Nicole "talked about children from time to time, but there was always the work. But then we went, When is it ever going to be the right time? That's how the conversation started. You're lying in bed at night and you're trying to sleep, so you roll over and you go, What would happen if we had this in our life?... One of the things that Nic and I talk about is that now suddenly we're a family."

Nicole said they definitely planned on having more kids, whether by birth or adoption, preferably both.

"Isabella was meant for us," she told the magazine. "I think when things come into your life at a certain time you have to take them. It's destiny."

She later revealed to VF in 2007 that they decided to adopt after she lost a pregnancy. "From the minute Tom and I were married, I wanted to have babies," she said. "And we lost a baby early on, so that was really very traumatic. And that's when we would adopt Bella." 

"There's a complicated background to that," she added, "given that I never speak much about many things. One day maybe that story will be told."

Isabella, an artist and graduate of London's Delamar Academy of Make-Up and Hair, lives in England with husband Max Parker. 

It raised a few eyebrows when the bride's parents didn't attend the couple's 2015 wedding at the Dorchester hotel in London.

"Of course, they're my parents," she fired back at Daily Mail Online when the newlywed was asked if she spoke to Tom and Nicole. "Anyone who says otherwise is full of s--t."

Moreover, only a few close friends attended and the groom's parents weren't there, either, his mom Beverly Parker telling the Mail they stayed away to avoid "a media circus." Calling the pair "lovely," she said, "I'm very pleased for them both and they're very happy."

Max told the publication that "you could say" his wife had foregone the spotlight, but it was "more of a weird situation for everyone else" than it was for them. 

Meanwhile, sources told People that Tom approved of Max, was OK with not being there and he paid for the wedding, while Nicole was just glad her daughter seemed happy.

Connor rounded out the family when he was adopted at birth on Jan. 17, 1995. He's a musician and DJ, and reportedly lives in Miami.

Nicole married Keith Urban in 2006 and they share daughters Sunday Rose, born July 7, 2008, and Faith Margaret, born via gestational surrogate Dec. 28, 2010.

Reflecting on how Connor and Isabella chose to live with their dad after the divorce, she told HELLO!, "I'd love them to live with us, but what can you do?" (They did attend the Kidman-Urban nuptials in Australia.)

Talking to Now to Love in 2014, Nicole called Isabella and Connor "generous, kind and hardworking," all "traits that I love to see in my children."

Several years later she acknowledged that both of her older kids were practicing Scientologists, like their father, but—contrary to rumors that religion had driven a wedge between them—that was neither here nor there.

"They are adults," the Oscar winner told Australia's Who in 2018. "They are able to make their own decisions. They have made choices to be Scientologists and as a mother, it's my job to love them."

And, like his sister, Connor has never said a cross word about his mom.

"I love my mum," he told Australia's Woman's Day in 2014 while in town to deejay at a festival. "I don't care what people say, I know that me and mum are solid. I love her a lot. My family means everything."

He also loved music, he added, "but the family comes before everything else."

Tom was in a sharing mood when he started dating the Dawson's Creek alum in 2005, boisterously telling Oprah Winfrey and her sofa that he was in love with the actress.

"Here's the thing, you can't think about it in terms of what people are going to do or say," he told MTV News that June of the PR perils of wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It's 'I want to share my life with this woman. This woman is exceptional, she's special, she's extraordinary and I have great respect for her.' It's someone who's saying 'I've got nothing to hide, I'm happy.' I'm happy, man!"

The Top Gun star proposed atop the Eiffel Tower in June 2005, reportedly within eight weeks of their first date.

Their lavish Nov. 18, 2006, nuptials were held at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy. Suri, Connor and Bella were in attendance, along with the likes of the Beckhams, Jennifer Lopez and then-husband Marc Anthony, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Brooke Shields and spouse Chris Henchy.

Tom and Katie's daughter was born April 18, 2006. 

The October 2006 cover of Vanity Fair, first revealed on the CBS Evening News Sept. 5, introduced Suri to the world. The portrait by Annie Leibovitz featured the 3-month-old tucked into her dad's leather aviator jacket, an homage to Linda McCartney's famous shot of Paul McCartney with their baby daughter Mary from his 1970 album McCartney.

"She's a glorious girl," Katie told the magazine. "She's the miracle of our life."

Tom shared that they found the name in a baby book sent to them by friends and just loved it. "We later found out that it meant 'red rose,' and that was just a bonus," he added. "Suri—it was perfect."

The article noted that the family, including Conor and Bella, were all gathered cozily at Tom's house in Telluride (which he sold in 2021 for $39.5 million).

"It's really special to see them holding their little sister," Katie said. "To hear them talk about all of the fun things they are going to do together." Added Tom, "It's very moving to me too. I look at those moments of watching Bella and Connor grow up and you get a sense of what kind of people they are going to be as adults."

Katie filed for divorce in June 2012, her attorney saying in a statement her "primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest."

Tom's rep told E! News that he "is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children."

The proceedings were settled relatively quickly, with both sides agreeing on Suri living primarily with her mom while her dad got generous visitation rights. Katie started splitting time between New York and L.A. and resettled Suri on the East Coast for school. 

The Batman Begins actress set about giving her kid the most normal life possible, ferrying her to school and gymnastics like any other Manhattan mom. While the paparazzi never stopped clicking away, Katie shared only a handful of glimpses of Suri on social media over the years. But they also were seen at sporting events and have made many a pilgrimage to Broadway to catch a show.

"My child is the most important person to me, and her upbringing is paramount to my work right now," she told Town & Country in 2017. "It's very important that I'm present and she has a stable, innocent childhood. I feel so blessed to do what I do, but there's nothing in the world better than watching your child succeed."

At the same time, she said, "Every day, kids get a little further away from you. That's a positive thing. They should be becoming more independent, but it's heartbreaking."

Suri may not have caught the acting bug yet, but she did sing the cover of "Blue Moon" that opens Alone Together, the rom-com her mom was inspired to write during the pandemic and then also starred in and directed. Suri also provided a vocal for her movie Rare Objects.

"I hope she always does something on my films," Katie told Glamour in March 2023. "I always ask her. But both of those experiences came out of the same sense of what I love about our industry, which is, you have these projects and you become a family with people. And it's this safe, beautiful, creative space."

With Suri about to turn 17 at the time, she noted, "What has been really important for me with my daughter, because she was so visible at a young age, is I really like to protect her. I'm very grateful to be a parent, to be her parent. She's an incredible person."