Tom Cruise‘s love life has been closely followed for decades, ever since making his breakthrough in the 1983 classic Risky Business. His romantic history consists of three famous marriages (all of which ended, coincidentally, when his wives were 33 years old) and a string of other high-profile romances. But between 2012-2020, Tom seemingly pumped the brakes on public romances.
However, there was renewed interest in the love life of one of Hollywood’s most famous bachelors after a new report surfaced in December 2020. It claimed that Tom was dating his co-star Hayley Atwell from Mission: Impossible 7. In June 2022, another report came out that the pair broke up. In 2023, Tom reportedly moved on with model Elsina Khayrova. But by 2025, it appeared that Ana de Armas captured Tom’s heart.
We have more information on Tom’s many other romances since the ’80s below.
Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls on the NBC series Little House on the Prairie, claimed that she dated Tom in the early 1980’s. This was at the very beginning of his career! “Actually, when I dated him he was Tom Mapother still. It was when he first moved to Los Angeles and I think I was 16, maybe, or 17?,” Melissa said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2017.
“I did not have sex with him,” Laura added. “We made out, but, honestly, there was no sex. He was a good kisser. But, you know, he was, like, a struggling, starving actor. I actually bought him his first set of dishes.” Melissa even reminisced on her friendship/past relationship with her fellow “Brat Pack” pal, Tom, in a throwback Instagram post shared in October 2019.
Heather Locklear was never Tom’s girlfriend, but she did go on one (sort of) date with him. It didn’t go well, according to her recollection. The Melrose Place star explained in a 2013 interview on Chelsea Lately that they had both “auditioned for something” together, back when Tom “didn’t have friends” in Hollywood in the early ’80s. So, they went dancing.
“You know in ‘Risky Business’ where he does that dance in his underwear and does the splits? We were dancing at a club and he went into that. He starting doing the splits,” Heather said. “You just kind of stand there and don’t know what to do. Do you dance around him? So, I was like, ‘I’ll just sit down and you can.’”
