Tom Cruise had a battered childhood
Cruise grew up near poverty and had a Catholic upbringing. The family was dominated by his abusive father, whom Cruise has described as "a merchant of chaos."
In an interview with an American magazine, he confides on his young and difficult years
NEW YORK Tom Cruise, often identified in his roles with a hero, admitted to having lived a difficult childhood, had school difficulties and a "brutal and cowardly" father who beat him, in an interview with the magazine Parade magazine.
The hero of Mission Impossible painted a grim picture of his childhood years, recounting suffering from hardship at school and the trauma of his parents' divorce.
Cruise was raised in a modest Catholic family dominated by an abusive father, an electrician without a stable job and who very often moved his family. The actor says his father “was brutal and cowardly; the kind of person who hit you when something was wrong. ”43-year-old Cruise praises his mother's courage, who divorced in 1974 when he was 11 years old. "My mother finally had the courage to face my father and leave."
He suffered from his difference
Cruise did not see his father again until 10 years later in the hospital where he was dying of cancer. At school, little Tom suffered from reading difficulties. “I was labeled dyslexic. It bothered me a lot and it was an affront to my dignity, ”he explains.
He says he attended 15 different schools in 12 years and was regularly brutalized.
Cruise, a member of the Church of Scientology, said he attended a seminary with the intention of taking orders. "I was interested in spirituality, but after a year I decided that becoming a priest was not for me."
The actor, who adopted two children with his ex-wife Nicole Kidman, is soon to become a father with his fiancée Katie Holmes, 27. “My concern is to be the best parent possible and to make sure that my children can think and make decisions for themselves,” he said.
