Now that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are getting a divorce, it's time to take a little look back at their relationship. It was a strange one, wasn't it? Full of too-eager public displays of affection that felt more like performance than passion. We'll likely never know the true nature of the relationship, but we can infer a little from the pictures.
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Here is TomKat's first public appearance, at an awards show in Rome in April of 2005. Thus began the grand Holmes/Cruise tradition of red carpet groping.
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Things got strange the next month, when Cruise appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 23rd and did his soon to be infamous couch-jumping routine. Yeah, he was excited about Katie, but who gets this excited, in public, about a new romance? Someone who really wants people to know/think he's in love! With an Earth female!
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Proving their fun, fancy-free, young love commitment to each other, Holmes joined Cruise on stage in early June when he won an MTV Movie Awards "Generation Award" for his body of work. Katie beamed, all proud of her boyfriend while chuckling and saying "Haha, what Oprah appearance?"
Two days later was the Los Angeles premiere of Holmes' biggest movie to date, Batman Begins. More public affection ensued and the film was a big ol' hit. Strangely, Holmes opted to not reprise her role in The Dark Knight, with some people whispering that Cruise didn't want her to do it for mysterious reaosns.
Less than two weeks later, Cruise proposed to Holmes on top of the Eiffel Tower and they did a strange, awkward victory tour. OK, technically Tom was promoting his big summer movie (such convenient timing...), War of the Worlds, but the engagement was the real news of the day.
More PDA at War's London premiere.
Back in the U.S. that same month, Tom and Katie did more strange, awkward romance-y public appearances, arriving rather ludicrously to the American War of the Worlds premiere on a motorcycle.
...and then kissing uncomfortably.
In October of 2005, the couple announced that they were expecting, and Holmes gave birth to daughter Suri in April of 2006, almost a year to the day from the couple's first public appearance. Besieged by rumors about the parentage of the baby and some Scientology-related activities during the birth, the couple decided to do a "we're a happy normal family" baby-debut photoshoot for the October '06 issue of Vanity Fair. And, gulp, it just made them look even less normal.
Seven months after Suri's birth, the couple was married at a twisting, maze-like castle in Italy. Many stars, including Will Smith, the Beckhams, Jennifer Lopez, and J.J. Abrams, attended the affair. True to form, the newlyweds released some photos for the curious public.
After a period of relative quiet, Tom showed up in New York City in April of 2007 to cheer Katie on as she supposedly ran the New York Marathon. As you can see in the picture, Katie finished the race in pants, a hat, and a sweatshirt, and not wearing a sports bra, leaving some to suspect that this was all some elaborate ruse cooked up to make Scientologists appear the picture of health. People also noted that Holmes went to a premiere in heels that night, despite having allegedly just run 26 miles. It was a P.R. strategy that, if actually cooked up, backfired.
Once the initial whirlwind died down, the couple made less frequent public appearances. They went to a soccer game in England in 2009.
They made kissy-kissy at the premiere of Cruise's Knight and Day in the summer of 2010.
And then here they are at the Vanity Fair post-Oscar party in February of this year.
All photos, except the Oprah still and the Vanity Fair cover are via Reuters.