Celebrity

Brooke Shields Gets Candid About Tom Cruise’s Bizarre Rant About Her Postpartum Depression

The Top Gun star sparked outrage in 2005 after calling Shields’ use of antidepressants for postpartum depression “irresponsible.”

Tom Cruise “eventually” apologized to Brooks Shields after his “ridiculous rant” about her use of antidepressants for postpartum depression, the actress revealed in her new memoir.

The Suddenly Susan alum, 59, wrote about the 2005 scandal in her new book, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, revealing that the Top Gun star, 62, did express remorse after having “disparaged” her during a 2005 TODAY show appearance. “It wasnโ€™t the worldโ€™s best apology, but itโ€™s what he was capable of, and I accepted it,” she wrote.

Videos by PopCulture.com

Matt Lauer interviews actor Tom Cruise on June 23, 2005. (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Shields also recalled “sticking up for” herself after Cruise called her “irresponsible” for taking medication to help with her postpartum depression after welcoming her eldest daughter, 21-year-old Rowan, whom she shares with husband Chris Henchy alongside 18-year-old daughter Grier.

After Cruise claimed the antidepressant “didn’t cure anything” in his 2005 TV appearance, Shields responded to the controversy with a scorching New York Times op-ed. “I was sticking up for myself, and for women who were suffering, against irrational and dangerous comments from an unschooled actor who was speaking way out of his depth,” Shields wrote in her new memoir, noting that while the op-ed “sparked outrage” at Cruise, it also “spurred discussions on the reality and prevalence of postpartum depression.”

Brooke Shields is seen arriving at ‘Good Morning America’ on January 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by MediaPunch/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

โ€œHad Tom taken a public swing at me before I became a mother, I probably would have stayed quiet. I would have ignored his ridiculous rant. I might have been content to sit back while this very famous man hijacked my experience to advance his own (deluded) agenda,โ€ Shields added. โ€œI would have been satisfied that his behavior would speak for itself.โ€

Having just turned 40 at the time, Shields said she felt “emboldened” to stand up for herself. “Sitting quietly and letting myself be attacked might have been my approach a decade earlier,” she wrote. “I might have even regretted sharing my story or felt insecure that maybe my career was stalling while a powerful male movie star was singling me out, sure that Iโ€™d never stand a chance in that fight โ€” but now I was emboldened by life experience.”