A roller-coaster romantic history almost comes with the territory in Hollywood.
You're always meeting people, you never know who's around the corner, you're working with someone and the chemistry is off the charts... the temptations are endless. Some stars seem to have no intention of settling down, while others settle down every chance they get. Serial monogamy, no strings attached, boyfriend swapping with your squad, making it Instagram official—there are so many different ways to date. Even a lot of the couples who've been together for decades are on their second (or third) marriages. Sometimes it just takes multiple tries to get it right.
Regardless of how long the current relationship is, or how much time a star spent off the market, a lot of action—real and imagined—can be packed into one personal life. But has anyone had a love life quite like Tom Cruise?
We don't mean his three marriages and various girlfriends—that's par for the course. Rather, as far as the utter fascination with how he goes about meeting women and what makes or breaks a relationship with him, no one in this celeb-obsessed culture has been under the microscope in recent years as much as Tom has.
Then again, he hasn't always helped his own cause if he'd prefer to not be a source of curiosity.
Having been an A-list heartthrob for the better part of three decades, Cruise is pretty used to being the subject of endless speculation, as are his peers—the Johnny Depps, Brad Pitts and George Clooneys of the world. And just like his fellow Sexiest Man Alive types, he's amassed an interesting list of actual and rumored love interests. Also like them, he doesn't have time to comment on every rumor.
Unlike them, however, Tom Cruise is...well, he's just so Tom Cruise. Ageless at 54, he's still entirely unique when it comes to the certain punch he brings to a movie. In a business where every star banks on the wrong film once in awhile, Cruise's list of credits is remarkably solid. Even among the box office busts, he's usually a pretty good reason to watch anyway. And aside from having that increasingly rare magnetic presence—the man can act.
All of which makes his inscrutable personal life just that much more interesting.
"I don't even get into that game," the actor told Today host Matt Lauer back in 2006 when he and Katie Holmes burst onto the scene as a couple. Katie, in fact, was sitting right off to the side while Cruise gave the interview, and the screen would occasionally flash back to the Dawson's Creek star and her apparent glee at being in that position.
"I'm just living my life, Matt. It's something—I'm just living my life—I'm doing the best that I can, and doing it in the way I feel is right," Cruise said, explaining his previous burst of emotion on Oprah Winfrey's couch. "I like hearing good news. I like hearing if something good happens to you, it's nice." Regarding rumors that TomKat was a PR stunt, he concluded, "There's always cynics. There always has been and always will be...I have never worried, Matt, about what other people think and what other people say."
Lucky for movie stars, they can hire people to do that for them.
So here's what's been said—by Tom Cruise and by other people—over the years about his romantic life.
Meanwhile, though the ins and outs of his personal life remain a closely guarded secret, he has plenty of public engagements to get ready for.
In addition to M:I6, he's got Doug Liman's CIA thriller American Made coming out, he's attached to star in the sci-fi space flick Luna Park and Cruise just revealed that the need for speed is great enough—Top Gun 2 is happening.
Moreover, the The Mummy—which opens in theaters June 9—was recently branded part of Universal's Dark Universe featuring the studio's various classic monster properties, an indication of more films to come.
And when Tom Cruise has more good news to share, we have a feeling we'll hear about it.
(E! News and Universal Pictures are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)