Brooke Shields Says Tom Cruise Apologized For Postpartum Depression Rant

Brooke Shields has revealed that Tom Cruise is capable of apologizing — even if not publicly — for stepping out of line. The model-turned-actress is opening up on the famous feud she and the A-Lister endured in 2005 after an infamous Cruise appearance on The TODAY Show. During an interview with then-anchor Matt Lauer, Cruise was asked about Shields’ own admission that she took antidepressants for postpartum depression, and turned it into a notoriously unhinged rant against medication and psychiatry. He even went so far as to call Shields “irresponsible,” provoking her to write a blistering op-ed on the matter for The New York Times.

Now, nearly twenty years after the moment took place, Shields is addressing the experience in her new memoir (as revealed by Entertainment Weekly), Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman. And, according to Shields, Cruise’s private apology, “wasn’t the world’s best apology, but it’s what he was capable of, and I accepted it.” But her thoughts on the ordeal do not end there.

Brooke Shields’ Clapback Spawned Vital Discussions About Postpartum Depression

At the time, Cruise was adamant in his chat with Lauer about the dangers of psychiatric medication, insisting that, “there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance. The thing that I’m saying about Brooke is that there’s misinformation. She doesn’t understand the history of psychiatry.” He went even further, accusing Shields of being “irresponsible” for taking antidepressants after the birth of her child.

Shields, however, was newly forty, and not willing to take the mischaracterization lying down, writing the following for the Times in her 2005 op-ed:

“Comments like those made by Tom Cruise are a disservice to mothers everywhere. To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercised shows an utter lack of understanding about postpartum depression and childbirth in general. If any good can come of Mr. Cruise’s ridiculous rant, let’s hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease.”

Prior to penning the op-ed, Shields’ then-publicist said the actress should not “dignify” Cruise’s comments with a response. But she believed she “wasn’t dignifying anything. I was sticking up for myself and for women who were suffering from irrational and dangerous comments from an unschooled actor who was speaking way out of his depth.” (For the record, she no longer works with that publicist.)

The two actors, who appeared on-screen together early in their careers in the film, Endless Love, did speak in person about the ordeal after awhile. “Eventually, Tom Cruise apologized to me,” she recalls in the memoir. “Not publicly, which would have been the right thing to do, but he came to my house and said he was sorry, and that he felt cornered by Matt Lauer and that he attacked me basically because he could. It wasn’t the world’s best apology, but it’s what he was capable of, and I accepted it.”

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The 62-year-old actor isn’t slowing down, as is evident from him hanging upside down from an airplane in Mission: Impossible 8.

Ultimately, Shields believes that “Tom didn’t have a leg to stand on” and that “his ignorance on the issue inspired women to get on their soapboxes and scream for their rights and their bodies. Having a famous movie star attacking my journey brought attention to it … I wasn’t laughed at or made to feel guilty, I was applauded.” But for her, the most important part was the lesson she took away from the experience, noting that “these external outcomes, while meaningful, were secondary to the realization that I am my own best spokesperson.”

A worthy reminder for women everywhere. And, hey, Tom? Feel free to publicly apologize for saying such harmful things at any time, buddy. After all, humility is the truest form of strength there is, Mr. Mission Impossible.