Tom Cruise has caught heat for a ‘sad’ comment he made when Father’s Day was brought up.
Fans have questioned Cruise’s response to a journalist who brought the topic up at the New York premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Cruise somewhat stumbled when asked about his plans on the day, which Americans will mark on 15 June.
‘Father’s Day is just around the corner,’ the interviewer pointed out before asking the movie star, ‘What would an ideal Father’s Day look like for you?’
Having engaged happily in the conversation for several minutes before the question, action star Cruise, 62, paused before quickly working to change the subject.
‘You know…’, he began to the E! reporter before staring into the distance.
He eventually added: ‘Just having fun, man.’
Without referring to any of his three children, Suri, 19, Bella, 32, or Connor, 30, Cruise pivoted his answer to start talking about the film industry.
‘Making movies, big adventures, having a great time,’ he said.
Fans were quick to express their thoughts on Tom’s sidestep of the question.
‘A simple question about Father’s Day and he can’t answer it,’ @Dorothy-v8c commented on E!’s YouTube account. ‘He has gotten to a point where all he can talk about is movies and his love of movies. What about being a parent, Tom? There was a time when that was important to you. Sad for this man.’
@ameliahawkins283 also commented: ‘making movies ? That’s definitely not a Dad activity. His loss’.
Who are Tom Cruise's children?
Bella
Bella was adopted by Cruise and Kidman in 1992 following the couple’s fertility struggles.
Going by Bella Kidman Cruise, she works as an artist and graphic designer, creating merchandise and displaying her pieces in exhibitions.
‘Bella has been drawing ever since her wee hands could pick up a pen,’ her website bio reads.
‘Since that point in time, she’s been evolving in her arts. Her go-to medium was pen and paper for most of her life.
‘However, she is now venturing into other formats and mediums. Including digital. Which has been a bit of a game-changer in her opinion. We hope you dig it.’
She lives in London with her husband, Max Parker.
Connor
Connor was also adopted shortly after Bella.
He initially wanted to venture into acting, appearing in the 2008 movie Seven Pounds and 2012’s Red Dawn.
In recent years, though, he’s retreated from the spotlight and launched a business, Connor’s Meat Shack.
Suri
Suri remains tight with her mother, and they live in New York.
She has dropped ‘Cruise’ as a surname and simply goes by her first and middle names now.
Her father was not present at the ceremony where she graduated from LaGuardia High School last summer.
Suri, an aspiring singer, is believed to have secured a place at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she’ll pursue music.
‘man avoiding father role’, quipped @Chryeon.
Other viewers jumped to defend the actor, with @ralphangel561 commenting: ‘That’s his personal business and no one’s business. He is there to work, not talk about his personal business’.
Cruise, currently rumoured to be dating Ana de Armas, shares Bella and Connor with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, to whom he was married from 1990 to 2001.
Meanwhile, he is estranged from daughter Suri, born in 2006 while he was married to Katie Holmes.
Cruise and Holmes were married for six years before the actress filed for divorce in 2012. Cruise later stated that the 46-year-old Dawson’s Creek star did so to protect Suri from Scientology, with Suri no longer a practising member of the organisation.
Suri was then raised by her mother in New York and, now a teenager, graduated from LaGuardia High School last year.
During her graduation ceremony, Suri revealed her new name for the first time, having dropped the Cruise surname and now going simply by Suri Noelle.
After it was claimed Suri’s alleged trust fund from Cruise had kickstarted after her 18th birthday, ex-wife Holmes took to Instagram to deny the speculation.
‘I don’t want a target on my child’s back,’ she wrote in a comment posted last December. ‘It’s dangerous.’
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While Cruise himself doesn’t speak publicly about Suri now, he previously claimed that he never ‘cut Suri out of [his] life’.
‘Certainly what doesn’t change is the love that I have for my daughter, and that I didn’t abandon her emotionally, physically, or otherwise,’ Cruise said in 2013.
‘And in terms of how I feel about her, in terms of the responsibility that I feel towards my child, it has not waned in any way.’
Since then, reports that Cruise no longer sees Suri have been pretty common, as The Sun suggested their visits ceased around 2013.
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