There's still an insatiable interest in Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's divorce. This story proves it.

There are few Hollywood romances that have captivated the public quite like Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's relationship.

He was a bona fide American action hero. She was the Australian queen of the silver screen. They just looked good together.

Despite their public profiles going in different directions since their split, their whirlwind romance remains a cherished piece of Hollywood lore.

Recently, Cruise made a rare comment about Kidman in an interview with Sight and Sound magazine, admitting he personally recommended Kidman for the role of Alice in Eyes Wide Shut.

"When we were doing that, I suggested Nicole play the role because obviously, she's a great actress," he reflected.

"It was a great experience. I was very excited to do it."

In response to this comment, people really cared. And by people, I mean Mamamia readers. That's you. Hello.

Every time we publish an article about these exes — whether we look back at their marriage, or there's a new quote that one has said about the other — people click on it and they click… a lot.

In the case of Cruise's latest comment, the big reaction makes sense. This interview marked the first time in over 20 years that Cruise publicly discussed Kidman in any detail.

Back in 2002, one year after their split, the Top Gun star was evasive when asked the reason behind his breakup with Kidman.

"She knows why, and I know why," Cruise told Vanity Fair at the time. "She's the mother of my children, and I wish her well."

You don't get bigger than Nicole and Tom. Image: Getty.

He continued, "Things happen in life, and you do everything you can, and in every possible way, and there's a point at which you just sometimes have to face the brutal reality."

Since then, Cruise famously hasn't answered questions about Kidman.

During a 2005 interview with Australian journalist Peter Overton for 60 Minutes Australia, after Overton asked a series of increasingly personal questions about Cruise's relationship with Kidman, Cruise snapped in the now-infamous interview moment.

"You're stepping over the line now. You're stepping over the line. You know you are," he tersely replied.

"I'm just telling you right now, OK. Just put your manners back in."

In the 24 years since the couple split, public interest in them has never waned.

Of course, nostalgia plays a big role in this too: for many, Cruise and Kidman represent a peak era of celebrity culture when movie stars were larger than life and their personal lives felt simultaneously accessible and out of reach.

But why such a looming fascination with a couple who have been divorced for much longer than they were ever married?

Tom and Nicole are just one of those untouchable celebrity couples. In my mind, the only comparable couples are Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, and well, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

But in the case of Tom and Nicole, more mystery surrounds them — and it keeps fans invested.

Sadly, we can kind of assume we know why Brad and Jen broke up (enter Ange!), and there have been years of public legal disputes between Brad and Angelina.

However, Cruise's caginess over their breakup only spurred the public to wonder what could have gone wrong between them. It's a question that's never, and probably will never, been answered.

Especially since Nicole has admitted to being 'blindsided' by Tom's decision to file for divorce in some of her brief statements on their split.

Tom and Nicole were America's sweethearts. This top-tier celebrity couple sold magazines like no one else. They were the ultimate old Hollywood love story.

Between their stunning good looks, charisma, likeability, A-list status and acting talents — this was the ultimate golden couple. And by Hollywood standards, an 11-year marriage was the stuff of legend.

But in the blink of an eye, these two were torn apart in a divorce just as dramatic as any of their blockbuster movies.

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in 1993. Image: Getty.

It's hard to ascertain exactly why people loved them so much, but I'd hazard a guess that it was that they felt like equals: Tom might have started out as the more famous one, but Nicole's star quickly rose.

By the peak of their relationship, Tom and Nicole were the king and queen of cinema — their picture-perfect marriage felt like it was pulled straight from the pages of a Hollywood script.

Tom and Nicole first crossed paths in early 1989 on the set of Days of Thunder. Cruise, already a household name thanks to hits like Top Gun, played race car driver Cole Trickle, while Kidman, a rising Australian star, was cast as his love interest, Dr. Claire Lewicki.

Their on-screen chemistry quickly translated into a real-life romance, even if no one remembers the movie that brought them together.

"It was that special connection when you recognise your soul mate," Tom told Vanity Fair in 1994. "She is a person who understands. It was as if a whole new life had started for me."

Less than a year after Cruise's divorce from Mimi Rogers, he and Kidman wed in a private ceremony on Christmas Eve in Telluride, Colorado in 1990.

Kidman was just 23, and Cruise was 28 at the time. The couple soon expanded their family, adopting daughter Isabella in 1992 and son Connor in 1995. Their shared journey into parenthood was widely covered, especially as they navigated fertility challenges and the pressures of balancing privacy with fame.

Throughout their marriage, Cruise and Kidman collaborated on several films, most notably Far and Away and Stanley Kubrick's aforementioned Eyes Wide Shut.

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise at the Eyes Wide Shut premiere. Image: Getty.

Despite their seemingly perfect life together, the couple announced their separation in 2001. Two days later, Tom filed for divorce.

This news was big. Like, big-big. People were genuinely devastated.

The couple's representative told multiple outlets in a statement that the split was due to "the difficulties inherent in divergent careers, which constantly keep them apart, they concluded that an amicable separation seems best for both of them at this time."

Their split was seemingly amicable, however, Kidman has hinted that their breakup wasn't something she fully understood at the time. "I'm starting to understand now [why we broke up]," she told Vanity Fair toward the end of 2002. "At the time, I didn't."

In 2006, she told Ladies Home Journal the divorce had been a shock to her and that she still had love for Tom.

"He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him," she told the magazine.

Again in 2013, she hinted her age may have had something to do with it. She was just in her early 20s when they met and tied the knot.

"I was a child, really, when I got married," she said. "And I needed to grow up."

In a 2020 interview with the New York Times when asked if she had any "negative feelings" about her relationship with Cruise, Kidman wouldn't divulge any details.

"I don't know what else to say. Maybe I don't have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I'm not willing to," she replied.

These days, both stars have moved on with their lives. They still share their two kids, although Bella and Connor chose to live primarily with Cruise and have a reported strong involvement in Scientology.

Kidman is now happily married to Keith Urban, with the couple sharing two daughters — Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret — while Cruise's romantic life remains a topic of constant speculation.

Like Kidman, his marriage to and divorce from Katie Holmes continued to inspire speculation.

But no matter how many years stretch between the controversial couple's divorce and now, we'll always be obsessed with the untapped potential of Tom and Nicole.

Feature image: Getty.