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Is Tom Cruise actually Connor Cruise's biological father? Some say there's no denying the resemblance.
By John Sundholm — Written on Mar 28, 2023
The marriage between Tom Cruise, 60, and Nicole Kidman, 55, has been over for so long—the pair divorced in 2001—that it can be easy to forget it ever happened, let alone that they adopted two children together, Connor Cruise, 28, and Isabella, 30.
But as the two children have cropped up in the news over the years, fans have not only been given a reminder of Cruise and Kidman's past, but they've also noticed that Connor Cruise looks suspiciously like his supposedly adoptive dad… enough to leave some wondering if there's more to the story.
Is Tom Cruise actually his son Connor Cruise's biological father?
That's the question some fans are asking after seeing more recent photos of the father and son side-by-side.
Kidman and Cruise married in 1989 after a whirlwind romance on the set of the film "Days of Thunder," and Kidman soon became pregnant. But she suffered an ectopic pregnancy, and the trauma of the experience is said to have driven the couple to adopt Isabella in 1992 and Connor in 1995. But some fans think there's more to the story than what's previously been told.
Fans think Tom Cruise and Connor Cruise share facial features that indicate Connor may not have been adopted.
It all began with a Twitter thread begun by ESPN journalist Jemele Hill, who posited that Tom Cruise may be the "greatest actor ever," asking fellow tweeters "am I tripping?" Hill received no shortage of blowback, and she later clarified she meant the greatest "movie star" of all time.
One person agreed with her on the whole "greatest actor ever" thing, though—just not on the basis of his movies.
Rather, it was on the basis that Cruise has supposedly kept up the ruse of being Connor's adopted dad all these years, for which he said the "man deserves every award imaginable."
At first blush, this seems like just idle celebrity gossip. But when another Twitter user posted a handful of pictures of Connor and Cruise side-by-side?
Well, the resemblance is kind of hard to miss—and some felt like it didn't stop just at Connor and Tom, either. Some thought Connor, Tom and Cruise's daughter with second ex-wife Katie Holmes, Suri Cruise, 16, all have similar eyes and smiles. When you look at the three side-by-side, the resemblance really does become uncanny.
Granted, the similarities between Suri and Tom Cruise are more pronounced than with Connor. But still… you can't help but notice that both apples seem not to have fallen terribly far from the ol' tree.
It has been speculated that Scientology is covering up the fact that Cruise is Connor's biological father.
There's little hard evidence to back it up, but some fans are convinced that this is yet another story of the Church of Scientology's overreach and theorized that Connor's true parentage is being covered up by Cruise and the Church because he is "too embarrassed to claim his Black son," as one Twitter user put it.
"Mom is probably in the cult too," another tweeter theorized, "but he has the money, fame, etc so he got the kid." Someone else commenting on the situation reported that "many of us in the Black community have suspected… for ages" that Tom Cruise is actually Connor Cruise's biological father, and that the adoption story was to "save face."
The Church of Scientology is alleged to have a checkered past when it comes to racism. The Church itself claims to be explicitly on the side of human rights on its website. But the religion's founder L. Ron Hubbard was said to be explicitly in support of the former white supremacist regime in South Africa and its segregationist policy of apartheid. (The Church has a different take on Hubbard's stance.)
Of course, in the end, this is all speculation, but Cruise's children have been at the center of many wild stories—from his alleged estrangement from Suri; to Connor and Isabella's supposed refusal to call Nicole Kidman "mom;" and their reported designation of her as a "suppressive person" apostate within the Church of Scientology.
The only people who will ever know the truth behind Cruise, Kidman and their children are the stars and their kids themselves. But this certainly wouldn't be the weirdest story to ever come out about Tom Cruise, would it?
The Church of Scientology has denied playing a role in the marriages and divorces between Cruise and Kidman, Cruise and Holmes, Connor and Isabella Cruise's relationships with their parents, and Suri Cruise's relationship with Tom Cruise.
The Church of Scientology's stances on most issues can be found on its website.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.