Do You Remember: When Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise Broke Up?

"Citing the difficulties inherent in divergent careers which constantly kept them apart, they concluded that an amicable separation seemed best for both of them at this time."

That was the statement given by publicist Pat Kingsley when Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced their split on February 5th, 2001. Two days later, Cruise filed for divorce. Nobody saw it coming. They were the golden couple of the ‘90s, the most famous married actors in the business. He was the mega-star who could do action movies and serious dramas. She was the Australian beauty who, long underestimated by the press, proved herself to be an incredible talent. After a decade together and several movies, they seemed to have beaten the Hollywood marriage curse and were in it for the long haul. I was barely ten years old when it happened and yet I have an oddly clear memory of the breaking news. It was just that big a deal. They were that big a deal. For some of a certain generation, this is the defining power couple of an era, and a symbol of the changing scales of fame for both sides of the equation.

Nicole Kidman was barely 22 when she was flown out to Hollywood to become the next big thing. She'd had a few breakout roles in her native Australia, and critics widely agreed that she was destined for big things. She was cast in Days of Thunder, a big loud NASCAR racing movie directed by Tony Scott that was intended as a new Summer blockbuster for Tom Cruise. When they met, he was still married to Mimi Rogers (and, as we discussed in our last Gossip Reading Club piece on Cruise, he was adamant that the marriage was strong at this point in production.) She was gone by the time Days of Thunder was in theatres, and Tom and Nicole were the stars of the red carpet, hand in hand. They married on Christmas Eve, 1990.

Tom and Nicole were adored. He only grew more famous throughout the decade thanks to a succession of box office hits and three Oscar nominations. At first, people thought Nicole was just an extremely pretty face, and she didn’t get the best roles to show her range. By the mid-90s, things shifted thanks to some career-best work in To Die For and The Portrait of a Lady. Then she became someone to take very seriously. The couple adopted two children and were photographed everywhere together.