10 Years Later: All the Details From Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' Lavish Italian Wedding

The stars became husband and wife in an elaborate celebration at a castle in bracciano.

Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise Official Wedding Photo

"I think every little girl dreams about [her wedding]," Katie Holmes said in an interview with  Seventeen  in 2004. "I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise ."

"So let it be written, so let it be done."

As fate would have it, her childhood wishes came true less than a year later when, newly split from fiancé Chris Klein , she accepted the Oscar winner's marriage proposal, subsequently gave birth to the couple's only child, Suri , and went on to marry her girlhood crush in one of the most significant wedding ceremonies in Hollywood history.

As pop culture history goes, the marriage ended in a divorce settlement five and a half years later with primary legal custody of Suri granted to her mother.

Nevertheless, for nostalgia's sake, today marks a different milestone for those vows—their 10-year anniversary. On this day in 2006, the actors became husband and wife inside Bracciano, Italy's 15th-century Odescalchi Castle, a celebration that reportedly cost them upwards of $3 million. 

With a price tag that grand, Tom and Katie's wedding cemented itself in celebrity bridal history. From the cream of the crop Hollywood guest list and double wedding gowns to a dinner serenade by  Andrea Bocelli , it seems no expense was spared on the night Holmes became Mrs.  Tom Cruise . 

"If you get invited to that wedding, you go," Brooke Shields , a guest at the wedding, told Jenny McCarthy  in an interview on her  SiriusXM show  in January.  

Before the wedding could begin, the bride needed a gown—or two. Holmes sported two dresses during the special night, both designed by wedding attendee Giorgio Armani . For the ceremony, the  Ray Donovan  actress donned an off-the-shoulder silk and lace design adorned with Swarovski crystals. The crystals alone took 350 hours to place, as People reported at the time.

Then, she switched into a one-shoulder off-white silk organza number embellished with more Swarovski crystals.

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Katie wasn't the only one to dazzle the crowd in Armani—her groom and the wedding party all wore the label for the special night. 

"Katie wanted a simple, elegant dress," Armani told People  at the time. "I wanted to make it modern but at the same time complement the sweetness and energy she conveys."

As fans would learn years later, Holmes accessorized with "something old" gifted to her by Shields. After being publicly criticized by Cruise for taking prescription medication for her postpartum depression, Shields said the actor came to her home to apologize. Soon after, she got a call from Holmes to invite her to their Italian nuptials. 

"She said, 'It just wouldn't feel right without you there,'" Shields told McCarthy during the interview in January. "And I said 'OK, I'll bring the something old, as long as it's not me!' And she said, 'would you?'"

The former face of Calvin Klein ultimately delivered the bride-to-be an antique enamel compact. 

The supermodel was just one name on the sprawling VIP list of famous attendees, which included  Will Smith  and  Jada Pinkett Smith , fellow Scientologists  John Travolta  and  Kelly Preston , David Beckham and Victoria Beckham , Jenny McCarthy and then-partner  Jim Carrey ,  Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez and former Scientologist Leah Remini . 

Once inside the castle's armory doors, guests were greeted by flag bearers sporting traditional Renaissance attire. With Cruise's older children, Connor and Isabella , Holmes' maid of honor, sister Nancy Blaylock , and Cruise's best man, Scientology leader David Miscavige , present, the couple took part in Scientology's traditional "double ring" ceremony and sealed it with a kiss. 

What followed was a seemingly endless celebration that carried into different halls of the castle, as People  described at the time. After a round of toasts, the bride danced with her father,  Martin Holmes , to  Louis Armstrong 's "What a Wonderful World" and joined Cruise for their first dance to  Fleetwood Mac 's "Songbird."

"It didn't take much time before I realized this Tom guy was a special guy—that he loved Katie, that he cared for her and supported her," Martin said during a toast at their rehearsal dinner at the Villa Aurelia. "Tonight, I am extremely proud and happy to raise my glass to Katie and Tom."

One five-tier wedding cake and fireworks display later, the guests danced the night away with music producer Mark Ronson spinning tunes and Lopez jumping in to perform one of her songs live when it came on. 

A nostalgic moment arrived when Cruise sang  The Righteous Brothers ' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" to his bride—a nod to his iconic performance in  Top Gun . 

Of course, the song now seems like a moment of foreboding as, five and a half years after they wrapped the late-night festivities and boarded a jet to the Maldives for their honeymoon, Holmes filed for divorce . The two have not remarried and Holmes continues to live with her daughter.

While their high-profile relationship was a subject of controversy and speculation since Cruise first jumped on Oprah Winfrey 's couch, the actress recently revealed she wouldn't do it differently. 

"I really enjoy my life," she told Ocean Drive   a year ago. "I don't really regret anything that I've done. I've learned from everything, and everything sort of leads you to the next place. I just keep going."

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Tom Cruise to Wed at Odesalchi Castle

tom cruise wedding italy

A picturesque medieval castle north of Rome is widely believed to be the secret location selected by Hollywood star Tom Cruise to wed his fiancée Katie Holmes later this month.

The 12th-century Castello Odescalchi, which overlooks Lake Bracciano, is a popular choice for VIP parties. It can host about 1,300 guests at a time and has its own private chapel.

The managers of the castle venue, which is owned by Princess Maria Pace Odescalchi, denied a press report that the long-awaited wedding was to take place there.

But the mayor of Bracciano, Patrizia Riccioni, revealed later that Princess Odescalchi has asked for the piazza in front of her castle to be closed to traffic on November 18, the day when Cruise and Holmes are to marry.

"This coincidence seems to be a pretty strong clue," she said. "Everything points to the Cruise-Holmes wedding taking place in Bracciano, where there will be a succession of international stars".

There was no immediate word from the golden couple itself.

Just where Cruise will wed his actress fiancée on November 18 has been showbiz's best-kept secret ever since the pair announced last month that they would be tying the knot somewhere in Italy.

Two plush Italian lakeside villas, George Clooney's on Lake Como and a former Mussolini residence on Lake Garda, have both appeared in gossip mags.

But on Tuesday Rome's Il Messaggero reported that the ceremony would be held at the Odescalchi castle, an atmospheric site which has hosted kings and a pope in its long history.

In recent years Italian pop star Eros Ramazzotti and top CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour chose it for their weddings.

Il Messaggero said there would be a star-studded party at the castle on November 16, a Catholic wedding ceremony the next day and a final ritual on November 18 presided over by an official of Scientology, the religious sect to which Cruise belongs.

Fabrizio D'Agostino, Rome representative for the Church of Scientology, said he had not been contacted by Cruise and Holmes. But he added that this might not be significant. "They don't have to contact me. They could choose whichever minister they want," he said.

It was unclear how Cruise could be married in a Catholic ceremony when he has already been married twice.

ARMANI STYLE AT WEDDING.

Italian weekly Chi confirmed Il Messaggero's version in a report of its own. It said the organisation of the three-day event was being handled by stylist Giorgio Armani, at a cost of 1.5 million euros.

Armani is known to be providing Holmes' wedding gown and Cruise's suit.

Chi's report claimed that the couple were spending 5,000 euros on embroidered bedroom towels to be given to their guests in the castle. The towels will bear the bride and groom's initials and be coloured according to sex: men's towels matching Cruise's wedding suit and women's matching his bride's dress.

The event is certain to have a strong Italian flavour. As well as saying their vows on Italian soil and wearing Armani creations, the couple will reportedly be drinking Italian wine and giving each other rings made by an Italian jeweller.

Roman gossip gurus think the actor will be turning to his favourite Italian restaurant, Dal Bolognese in Rome's Piazza del Popolo, to handle catering at the snazziest celebrity wedding in years.

Cruise, 44, and Holmes, 27, have been together for about 18 months. In April this year Holmes gave birth to a baby girl, who they called Suri.

It was in Rome that the actor, during a flying visit for the presentation of his film Mission Impossible III, told the world about his new enthusiasm for changing diapers.

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Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise Wed in Italian Castle

BRACCIANO, Italy – Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes exchanged vows Saturday in a lavish, star-studded wedding celebrated in a fairy-tale setting: a glowing 15th-century castle in this medieval lakeside town.

Richard Gere , Jennifer Lopez and Jim Carrey were among the more than 150 relatives and friends at the union of "TomKat," whose relationship has created a media firestorm since the superstar couple announced it little more than a year and a half ago.

Giorgio Armani , who designed the clothes of the entire wedding party, was there too, as was Brooke Shields, who has patched up a very public rift created when Cruise criticized her for using prescription drugs to treat postpartum depression.

Photo Essay: Preparing for the TomKat Wedding

Oil-fed torches and tiny candles flickered from the battlements and windows of the Odescalchi castle as the couple and guests gathered for the evening wedding in the town about 27 miles northwest of Rome. The ceremony was performed by a Scientology minister, the couple's publicists said.

The couple's baby, Suri, came dressed in white and in her mother's arms, seven months after her birth created a sensation of its own.

The wedding party included Cruise's two children, Isabella and Connor, from his previous marriage to Nicole Kidman, the publicists said in a statement. The best man was Cruise's best friend David Miscavige and the matron of honor was Holmes' sister Nancy Blaylock.

Click Here for the Katie Holmes Celebrity Center

Holmes wore a black dress and boots before she changed into an off-the-shoulder ivory silk gown designed by Giorgio Armani for the ceremony. Her father, Martin Holmes, walked her down the aisle and she carried a bouquet of flowers made by Armani including calla lilies.

Cruise, who sported dark shades and waved to fans as he rode through the castle gates in a van, wore a single breasted navy blue Armani handmade suit, with an ivory silk French collar shirt of the same fabric as the bride's gown for the wedding.

Armani told The Associated Press that Cruise, then Holmes, walked down a stone ramp lined with flag bearers in medieval costumes and to the roll of drums.

Click Here for the Tom Cruise Celebrity Center

They exchanged vows in a former stable decorated simply with white flowers.

"For the Americans, this was very special because Americans do not have this kind of thing back home, and they dream of such things in our beautiful country, and you can see the surprise and the awe on their faces," Armani said.

He added that the 20-minute ceremony ended with "a never-ending kiss" that prompted some of the guests to shout "stop, stop!"

Italian singer Andrea Bocelli serenaded the couple at the reception and the bride and groom cut a five-tiered white chocolate wedding cake. Fireworks later burst above the castle, but the view was marred by a foggy night.

Cruise-Holmes Wedding May Have Some Strange Vows

Other famous guests included soccer star David Beckham's pop star wife Victoria, formerly known as Posh Spice of the Spice Girls.

Cruise and Holmes arrived separately to the castle earlier Saturday, with pouring rain forcing Holmes and her daughter to take shelter under large, green umbrellas as they left their limousine. The sun was shining on the castle when Cruise arrived in a van from Rome, where the family had been staying in a luxury hotel near the Spanish Steps, with some fans shouting, "Tom, Tom!"

When the groom drove up, Holmes watched from a castle window and anxiously gestured with her hand. Holmes was giving Cruise a Vacheron Constantin watch engraved simply, "I Love You," as a wedding gift, the company said. It said she bought the gift in Los Angeles last week.

As the sun began to set, candles were placed in pots along the road to the castle and in some of the windows. Men wearing tuxedos and women holding up the hems of their long gowns walked up the steep path to the castle.

Security was tight, with Carbinieri paramilitary police patrolling the walls of the castle and all vehicles banned from the center of Bracciano.

The flag of the Odescalchi family, whose ancestors include Benedetto Odescalchi, the 17th century pope Innocent XI, fluttered over the castle's towers.

"When I first walked here, I didn't know why they chose this place," said Emily Roeder, 19, of Atchison, Kan., who came to Bracciano for the day from Florence, where she is studying. "Then I saw the castle and the streets all around, and it's really romantic."

Hundreds of the town's 14,000 residents and fans of the stars braved intermittent rain to catch a glimpse of the arrivals.

"I want to see at least one of them — even if it's not Tom Cruise," said 15-year-old Erica Bandiera.

"I want to see Beckham's wife," said her friend Luca Costanzi, 15, with a huge grin.

Holmes and Cruise became engaged in June 2005, about two months after they went public with their relationship, kissing and posing for photographers in Rome. Their daughter was born April 18.

Much of the attention given to Cruise since he jumped up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch proclaiming his love for Holmes has been negative. He was mocked for that episode, criticized for his comments about Shields and questioned about his embrace of Scientology, the religion founded by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard that holds an opposition to psychiatry and related medication among its tenets.

In August, Paramount Studios severed its 14-year deal with Cruise's film production company; Sumner Redstone, whose company owns Paramount Pictures, said "his recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount." Earlier this month it was announced that Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, are taking over the Hollywood movie studio United Artists.

Scientology ceremonies contain many elements of traditional weddings, including rings and vows. But they also include certain Scientology fundamentals, including vowing never to go to bed without communicating about any differences.

A spokesman for the Church of Scientology for Rome, Fabrizio D'Agostino, said an exchange of vows with a Scientology rite was not legally recognized in Italy, and would have to be preceded or followed by a civil union.

The publicists said Cruise and Holmes had "officialized their marriage in Los Angeles prior to their departure for Italy," saying that was customary for couples marrying outside the United States. Cruise's publicist Arnold Robinson did not immediately reply to an e-mailed question about whether that meant they had been married in a civil ceremony.

Cruise, star of the "Mission: Impossible" series and "War of the Worlds," was divorced from Kidman in 2001, was previously married to Mimi Rogers and had a high-profile romance with Penelope Cruz. Holmes, who starred in TV's "Dawson's Creek," and last year in "Batman Begins," had been engaged to Chris Klein.

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's 2006 union was the 'wedding of the century.' Their photographer shares what it was like to shoot the event.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes tied the knot in “the wedding of the century,” 17 years ago.

While it’s unclear exactly who officially gave it that title — a term used by the media, including CBS News and Fox News , at the time the pair married at an Italian castle on Nov. 18, 2006 — it continues to be used, for example, most recently in Leah Remini’s recent Scientology lawsuit .

While the union wasn’t forever, the wedding certainly was an extravaganza — costing more than $3 million, according to E! News — with multiple days of events, A-list guests and gawkers hoping to get a glimpse of the famed movie star and his Dawson’s Creek actress bride outside Castello Orsini-Odescalchi in Bracciano. A wedding photo, snapped by photographer Robert Evans , showing the pair cheek to cheek against a vined castle wall confirmed it was official.

The lead-up

The public had been hyped up about the coupling after the pair went public in April 2005. They were outwardly so in love , as evident by Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch while gushing over “Kate.” For her part, she revealed that Cruise, who was 16 years her senior, was her childhood crush. They cruised into a premiere with her on the back of a motorcycle like a real-life Maverick and Charlie from Top Gun . Not two months after they started dating, he proposed at the Eiffel Tower, which was announced at a press conference .

It all seemed too much to believe — and there was skepticism. Was it a publicity stunt? Had she really auditioned to be his third wife? Holmes fired her agent and publicist and started having Scientology handlers sit in on her interviews . There was the ultrasound machine flap and speculation Holmes would have to have a silent birth . But, more pressing, was she even pregnant at all ? The rumors quickly spun out of control, so much so that they hid away baby Suri for months after she was born in April 2006.

By October 2006, however, the baby had made her world debut in Vanity Fair. And the couple publicly confirmed they had set a date to wed. So by Nov. 18 of that year, when Cruise, who had previously been married twice, and Holmes were ready to say “I do,” the world was eagerly following along. On the guest list were A-listers Jennifer Lopez, David and Victoria Beckham, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy and it was a who’s who of Scientology (church leader David Miscavige was Cruise’s best man), making it a spectacle impossible to look away from or avoid hearing about.

The firsthand account

While the world was watching — and crowds lined the street outside — it was just another day of work for the couple’s wedding photographer, Evans.

Evans recalled to Yahoo Entertainment being asked — along with other wedding photographers with experience capturing celebrity weddings (he shot Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt’s 2000 nuptials ) — to submit his work for consideration. He had never met the bride- or groom-to-be. Cruise ended up being the one to hire him — and was very enthusiastic while doing so.

“When I met him for the first time, he was very excited to meet me,” says the author of The Secrets of Spectacular Wedding Photography . “ It was around the time he was kinda getting the bad press for the couch-jumping thing. But he was super-nice. He was like: ‘I’m so happy to meet you! When I saw your book, I was like: That’s my guy! That’s my guy!’   He was excited about it. I'm meeting Tom Cruise for the first time, this is within the first minute of us meeting, and I was like ... ‘Thank you?’ I'm not great with compliments.”

Evans and another photographer flew to Rome for the festivities, though not by private plane. They stayed next door to the hotel Cruise, Holmes and their guests, approximately 150 total, were in. Evans covered two days of events prior to the wedding, so he was ready for go time on the big day.

“It seemed very real and natural to me,” he said of the vibe between the bride and groom, who both wore Giorgio   Armani and were serenaded by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. “They just seemed like they were having a great time and they were in love. Obviously I’m not thinking about that [while I’m working], but you are observing and you see it. But then the pictures reflect it. I guess they’re actors; they could have been faking it. But I just go there and do my job and shoot what I see.”

As for the celebrity guest list, he says the “wow factor” of being among a star-studded crowd wears off quickly when you’re busy trying to capture a couple’s big day. When we list some of the guests — like Lopez and the Smiths — he says, “It's funny, I was like, I don’t even remember them being there.”

Evans says one thing he’s learned being “on the inside” for famous weddings — including Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton’s 2011 wedding — is that “the stuff that gets reported after is usually not very accurate. People are speculating because they don’t know the truth.” And because of nondisclosure agreements, “obviously, you can’t tell anybody that the flowers were pink or the cake was this, so they all speculate, and a lot of stuff you hear, that's not what happened. It gives a little insight into what it must be like to be a celebrity and having no privacy. Yes, I realize that’s the job that they chose, but that’s the con that goes with the pro.”

As for the wedding photos that get released, Evans says they’re never ones he’d pick himself from his batch of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 photos snapped at an event like that.

“If it were up to me, although I liked that photo of them, I would choose different images,” he says. “I mean that it’s kind of true with every celebrity that I’ve ever [shot].”

That’s because the magazines that buy the pictures — which People magazine did back in the day for this wedding — “want certain things: the traditional walk down the aisle, the cake photo.” Today, there aren’t the same bidding wars over celebrity wedding photos because publications are selling fewer magazines. And social media has made it so that stars share their own first pic directly with fans.

It’s also not lost on him that when a celebrity couple splits, the wedding photos are “the same images that get flashed all over again” in the press and online, “and it kind of tears it all apart.” So sometimes Evans is not that sad that the world doesn’t get to see some of the more beautiful and intimate moments he captures.

The uncoupling

In 2012, Holmes filed for divorce from Cruise after nearly six years of marriage in what was called “a calculated breakup .” Eleven days later, it was ironed out in a shockingly quick divorce settlement. Holmes got primary legal   custody of their now-teen daughter. Mother and daughter moved to New York City full-time; Cruise — who also has two children with actress Nicole Kidman — hasn’t been spotted publicly with Suri in years.

The exes have said very little about one another since, but in a lawsuit deposition in 2012, when Cruise sued over a report that claimed he “abandoned” Suri, he said yes when asked if Holmes told him one of the reasons she was leaving him was to protect their daughter from Scientology . He also said that Holmes left the Church of Scientology and that Suri was not a member. Meanwhile, Holmes told Ocean Drive in 2015, “I don’t really regret anything that I’ve done. I’ve learned from everything, and everything sort of leads you to the next place. I just keep going.”

It’s unclear who Cruise may or may not be in a relationship with. ( There are always rumors .) Holmes was in a longtime relationship with actor Jamie Foxx and later dated NYC restaurateur Emilio Vitolo and musician Bobby Wooten III.

The aftermath

The TomKat wedding was back in the news this year amid Remini’s lawsuit against Scientology.

The King of Queens actress, who left the organization in 2013 and has become a vocal critic, claimed she had been “stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated” since she left. Within the lawsuit were multiple mentions of Cruise, because she claimed her life as a Scientologist changed after his “wedding of the century.” The church has called her lawsuit “ludicrous” and “frivolous.”

Among Remini’s claims was that she asked where best man Miscavige’s wife, Shelly , was and it caused drama. She also claimed she witnessed other behavior at the wedding “that set off red flags,” including unethical contacts between various Scientology executives and others at the wedding, and when she spoke up about it, she was admonished. As a result, she claimed she was held at a Scientology facility for four months after the wedding. She also claimed she had to make amends to the newlyweds by donating money to name a seat in a theater after Suri.

Remini previously claimed, in 2015, that her invitation to the wedding came with a request to get her high-profile friends to attend , including her BFF Lopez and Lopez’s then-husband Marc Anthony. She said the church wanted to recruit them. (Lopez has denied being a Scientologist but said her father is .) She also claimed baby Suri was at one point crying on a bathroom floor and that nobody picked her up. Remini said at the time that Holmes accused her of “disrupting the party” and submitted a report to the church about her.

While the church has denied Remini’s claims, Holmes said at the time, “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future.”

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Their Dream Has Broken down into Pieces, but Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes' Italian Wedding Was a Real Fairy Tale

When she was only 8 years old, he was already cementing his status as a superstar thanks to the 1986 Tony Scott 's movie “Top Gun” , that really took many breaths away . In 1997, she won the part of Joey Potter on world-famous American TV series Dawson's Creek and he was awarded a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Jerry Maguire. At the time, Tom Cruise was still married to fabulous Nicole Kidman and nobody thought they would ever break up; however, the Days of Thunder couple filed for divorce in 2001 and four years later, Cruise declared his love for Dawson's former best friend on the Oprah Winfrey Show (famously jumping up and down on Oprah's couch!).

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise got engaged in Paris in the spring of 2005 and pronounced the fateful “yes” on November, 18th 2006 at Castello Orsini-Odescalchi , on the southern shore of Lake Bracciano , about 40 km from the Eternal City ; you have to know that this 15th-century fortress is considered by many as one of the best-preserved in Italy and its long history is closely tied to the one of the Borgias and the Orsini family.

Celebrations began on Thursday, November 16th, Tom and Kat kicked off the long week-end with a wine toast at one of Tom's favorite local restaurants; Rome was literally filled with celebrities scaling the Spanish steps (from Jim Carrey to David Beckham and family), doing luxury shopping and smiling at jubilant passers-by on the beautiful streets. On the following evening, the bride's parents hosted a rehearsal dinner at Villa Aurelia (a mansion from the 17th century) and everybody celebrated past midnight.

On the big day, shortly after sunset, all the guests were greeted at Odescalchi Castle by flag bearers in colorful Renaissance costumes and seated inside an ancient armory entirely filled with candles; Katie walked down the aisle in an ivory silk wedding dress created by Giorgio Armani and Tom looked at her for a moment that seemed to last an eternity before placing a platinum-and-diamond Cartier Dia Eternity band on her finger. The sweetest kiss followed, of course.

After the ceremony, everybody made their way to a reception in the castle's Grand Hall and the bride danced with her dad to the tune of Louis Armstrong 's What a Wonderful World ; a huge white chocolate mousse cake was cut and later the whole group moved to a courtyard, where an impressive fireworks display exploded.

Is that it? Absolutely not! After the fireworks, everybody partied until the wee hours with DJ Mark Ronson; the groom started singing along with The Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (not to Kelly McGillis but to Katie of course :-) ) and when a Jennifer Lopez song came on, J. Lo started performing live in the middle of the hall.

Tom and Katie wanted a real fairy tale and paid a fortune to make it come true... Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough, but still a beautiful baby girl remains and a lot of good memories too.

You want to get married in Italy and you don't know where to start? Visit how to get married in italy for further information!

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's 2006 union was the 'wedding of the century.' Their photographer shares what it was like to shoot the event.

Robert evans, who photographed the former couple's nuptials, talks to yahoo entertainment..

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes tied the knot in “the wedding of the century,” 17 years ago.

While it’s unclear exactly who officially gave it that title — a term used by the media, including CBS News and Fox News , at the time the pair married at an Italian castle on Nov. 18, 2006 — it continues to be used, for example, most recently in Leah Remini’s recent Scientology lawsuit .

While the union wasn’t forever, the wedding certainly was an extravaganza — costing more than $3 million, according to E! News — with multiple days of events, A-list guests and gawkers hoping to get a glimpse of the famed movie star and his Dawson’s Creek actress bride outside Castello Orsini-Odescalchi in Bracciano. A wedding photo, snapped by photographer Robert Evans , showing the pair cheek to cheek against a vined castle wall confirmed it was official.

The lead-up

The public had been hyped up about the coupling after the pair went public in April 2005. They were outwardly so in love , as evident by Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch while gushing over “Kate.” For her part, she revealed that Cruise, who was 16 years her senior, was her childhood crush. They cruised into a premiere with her on the back of a motorcycle like a real-life Maverick and Charlie from Top Gun . Not two months after they started dating, he proposed at the Eiffel Tower, which was announced at a press conference .

It all seemed too much to believe — and there was skepticism. Was it a publicity stunt? Had she really auditioned to be his third wife? Holmes fired her agent and publicist and started having Scientology handlers sit in on her interviews . There was the ultrasound machine flap and speculation Holmes would have to have a silent birth . But, more pressing, was she even pregnant at all ? The rumors quickly spun out of control, so much so that they hid away baby Suri for months after she was born in April 2006.

By October 2006, however, the baby had made her world debut in Vanity Fair. And the couple publicly confirmed they had set a date to wed. So by Nov. 18 of that year, when Cruise, who had previously been married twice, and Holmes were ready to say “I do,” the world was eagerly following along. On the guest list were A-listers Jennifer Lopez, David and Victoria Beckham, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy and it was a who’s who of Scientology (church leader David Miscavige was Cruise’s best man), making it a spectacle impossible to look away from or avoid hearing about.

The firsthand account

While the world was watching — and crowds lined the street outside — it was just another day of work for the couple’s wedding photographer, Evans.

Evans recalled to Yahoo Entertainment being asked — along with other wedding photographers with experience capturing celebrity weddings (he shot Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt’s 2000 nuptials ) — to submit his work for consideration. He had never met the bride- or groom-to-be. Cruise ended up being the one to hire him — and was very enthusiastic while doing so.

“When I met him for the first time, he was very excited to meet me,” says the author of The Secrets of Spectacular Wedding Photography . “ It was around the time he was kinda getting the bad press for the couch-jumping thing. But he was super-nice. He was like: ‘I’m so happy to meet you! When I saw your book, I was like: That’s my guy! That’s my guy!’   He was excited about it. I'm meeting Tom Cruise for the first time, this is within the first minute of us meeting, and I was like ... ‘Thank you?’ I'm not great with compliments.”

Evans and another photographer flew to Rome for the festivities, though not by private plane. They stayed next door to the hotel Cruise, Holmes and their guests, approximately 150 total, were in. Evans covered two days of events prior to the wedding, so he was ready for go time on the big day.

“It seemed very real and natural to me,” he said of the vibe between the bride and groom, who both wore Giorgio   Armani and were serenaded by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. “They just seemed like they were having a great time and they were in love. Obviously I’m not thinking about that [while I’m working], but you are observing and you see it. But then the pictures reflect it. I guess they’re actors; they could have been faking it. But I just go there and do my job and shoot what I see.”

As for the celebrity guest list, he says the “wow factor” of being among a star-studded crowd wears off quickly when you’re busy trying to capture a couple’s big day. When we list some of the guests — like Lopez and the Smiths — he says, “It's funny, I was like, I don’t even remember them being there.”

Evans says one thing he’s learned being “on the inside” for famous weddings — including Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton’s 2011 wedding — is that “the stuff that gets reported after is usually not very accurate. People are speculating because they don’t know the truth.” And because of nondisclosure agreements, “obviously, you can’t tell anybody that the flowers were pink or the cake was this, so they all speculate, and a lot of stuff you hear, that's not what happened. It gives a little insight into what it must be like to be a celebrity and having no privacy. Yes, I realize that’s the job that they chose, but that’s the con that goes with the pro.”

As for the wedding photos that get released, Evans says they’re never ones he’d pick himself from his batch of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 photos snapped at an event like that.

“If it were up to me, although I liked that photo of them, I would choose different images,” he says. “I mean that it’s kind of true with every celebrity that I’ve ever [shot].”

That’s because the magazines that buy the pictures — which People magazine did back in the day for this wedding — “want certain things: the traditional walk down the aisle, the cake photo.” Today, there aren’t the same bidding wars over celebrity wedding photos because publications are selling fewer magazines. And social media has made it so that stars share their own first pic directly with fans.

It’s also not lost on him that when a celebrity couple splits, the wedding photos are “the same images that get flashed all over again” in the press and online, “and it kind of tears it all apart.” So sometimes Evans is not that sad that the world doesn’t get to see some of the more beautiful and intimate moments he captures.

The uncoupling

In 2012, Holmes filed for divorce from Cruise after nearly six years of marriage in what was called “a calculated breakup .” Eleven days later, it was ironed out in a shockingly quick divorce settlement. Holmes got primary legal   custody of their now-teen daughter. Mother and daughter moved to New York City full-time; Cruise — who also has two children with actress Nicole Kidman — hasn’t been spotted publicly with Suri in years.

The exes have said very little about one another since, but in a lawsuit deposition in 2012, when Cruise sued over a report that claimed he “abandoned” Suri, he said yes when asked if Holmes told him one of the reasons she was leaving him was to protect their daughter from Scientology . He also said that Holmes left the Church of Scientology and that Suri was not a member. Meanwhile, Holmes told Ocean Drive in 2015, “I don’t really regret anything that I’ve done. I’ve learned from everything, and everything sort of leads you to the next place. I just keep going.”

It’s unclear who Cruise may or may not be in a relationship with. ( There are always rumors .) Holmes was in a longtime relationship with actor Jamie Foxx and later dated NYC restaurateur Emilio Vitolo and musician Bobby Wooten III.

The aftermath

The TomKat wedding was back in the news this year amid Remini’s lawsuit against Scientology.

The King of Queens actress, who left the organization in 2013 and has become a vocal critic, claimed she had been “stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated” since she left. Within the lawsuit were multiple mentions of Cruise, because she claimed her life as a Scientologist changed after his “wedding of the century.” The church has called her lawsuit “ludicrous” and “frivolous.”

Among Remini’s claims was that she asked where best man Miscavige’s wife, Shelly , was and it caused drama. She also claimed she witnessed other behavior at the wedding “that set off red flags,” including unethical contacts between various Scientology executives and others at the wedding, and when she spoke up about it, she was admonished. As a result, she claimed she was held at a Scientology facility for four months after the wedding. She also claimed she had to make amends to the newlyweds by donating money to name a seat in a theater after Suri.

Remini previously claimed, in 2015, that her invitation to the wedding came with a request to get her high-profile friends to attend , including her BFF Lopez and Lopez’s then-husband Marc Anthony. She said the church wanted to recruit them. (Lopez has denied being a Scientologist but said her father is .) She also claimed baby Suri was at one point crying on a bathroom floor and that nobody picked her up. Remini said at the time that Holmes accused her of “disrupting the party” and submitted a report to the church about her.

While the church has denied Remini’s claims, Holmes said at the time, “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future.”

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Tom Cruise's Wedding Castle by Lake Bracciano

Realize your love dreams in this fairytale setting in bracciano.

A stunning historic castle at one hour distance from the Colosseum, a breathtaking location hosting weddings and romantic events alike. 

Wrapped in the greenery of the Roman countryside, the castle is considered as one of the most beautiful and majestic Renaissance manors in Europe, and can be rented for your exclusive use.

With a wide choice of areas for your wedding reception and ceremony, from the Renaissance-style gardens, the inner courtyard with arcade, to the elegant halls, this is a very hot location, which ended up on many celebs wedding radars, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' to name one. 

The castle arranges events of all sizes, including important guest lists up to 500 people.

Fairytale atmosphere, stunning panoramic views on the lake and the reassuring presence of the battlemented towers will leave your guests enchanted for years to come.

Accommodation and other useful tips

Catholic ceremonies can be celebrated on site, with the bride making a grand entrance through the tunnel connecting the castle and the church while all the other guests can reach the location via the hamlet little piazza.

Symbolic and protestant blessings with legal value can also be officiated onsite in the scenic gardens, or in one of the elegant halls in the main building.

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A look back at tom cruise & katie holmes’ marriage & divorce in photos.

by Delilah Gray

Delilah Gray

Trending News Editor

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Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise

When people think of the 2000s, obviously, a lot comes to mind. Looking past the questionable fashion choices and our obsession with everything pink, everyone was really obsessed with the “It” couples of the decade: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck , Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling, and, perhaps most of all, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise (AKA TomKat), who married 16 years ago on November 18, 2006.

Let’s face it; whether you loved them or hated them, everyone was paying attention. Their whirlwind romance started in 2005, and within two months, they were ready to tie the knot . Then came love, marriage, and a baby carriage — just not in that order. Soon after they announced their engagement, they also announced they were expecting their daughter Suri Cruise .

They seemed like a simple, happy family, from their Italian fairytale wedding to their many smiling red-carpet appearances. But some people got a weird vibe, especially after Cruise’s Scientology activities went viral, and some worried Holmes was trapped in the marriage.

Then, after nearly six years of marriage, Holmes filed for divorce in 2012 — and everyone had so many questions. What was 2000s royalty became another celebrity divorce that broke our hearts.

Learn more about their turbulent relationship and divorce timeline, and see some photos of the pair together below.

A version of this article was originally published on Nov 2021. 

Love in Italy

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got together in 2005 and made their love public while they were touring Italy.

Wedding Bells

tom cruise wedding italy

When Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes revealed their relationship, everyone thought it was a fairytale. When Holmes first got into the Hollywood scene in the early 2000s, she told Seventeen magazine in a now-deleted interview whom she saw herself marrying. Per Vogue , “I think every little girl dreams about (her wedding). I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise.”

Packing On The PDA

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise weren’t afraid to pack on the PDA, wherever they were.

Engagement Ring

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes was proudly showing off the $1.5 million engagement ring Tom Cruise gave her after less than two months together.

The War of the Worlds

tom cruise wedding italy

Newly engaged couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were all smiles at the premiere of  The War of the Worlds  in 2005.

Baby on Board

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise was over-the-top with his love and excitement for every milestone he had with Katie Holmes. The media lost it when they announced they were expecting a baby.

Sports Fanatics

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were very in love throughout their marriage, and one of their go-to activities together was to go to sports games.

Perfect Day

tom cruise wedding italy

On Nov 18, 2006, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise had a star-studded wedding in a castle in Italy.

The Big Day

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise wore Giorgio Armani ensembles, and everyone was obsessed with the iconic wedding.

Suri’s Origin

tom cruise wedding italy

The happy family frequently went to sports games, even when Suri Cruise was an infant. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes named their baby girl “Suri” because it means both “princess” and “red rose.”

Mother-Daughter Duo From Day One

tom cruise wedding italy

Suri Cruise has always been a momma’s girl and you couldn’t find a photo of Katie Holmes not holding onto Suri.

Scientology Family

tom cruise wedding italy

Soon after getting together, Katie Holmes converted to Scientology for Tom Cruise.

NYC Marathon

tom cruise wedding italy

Back in 2007, Katie Holmes finished the NYC Marathon. Tom and Suri Cruise were right there to show their support.

Red Carpet Wonders

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes always brought their A-game with red carpet fashion.

Baby No. 2?

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were open to having more children in the future, according to Marie Claire.

Happy Family

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes brought their daughter Suri wherever they went.

Word Travelers

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise went everywhere around the world together, frequently going to places like Japan, Germany, and Italy.

Helping Hand

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes always showed up to a friend’s important day. In 2009, they showed their support for friend and former co-star Cameron Diaz, who was getting a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

TomKat-ing Around

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were one of the IT couples of the 2000s, with the name “TomKat.”

tom cruise wedding italy

Despite both being in multiple projects in 2010, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise frequently set aside time for one another.

Joined At The Hip

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were always side-by-side during film premieres.

“Very Special” Relationship

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise raved about Katie Holmes whenever he could, even close to the end of their marriage. In a 2012 interview with Playboy , he said, “I’m just happy, and I have been since the moment I met her. What we have is very special.”

Happy Red Carpet Couple

tom cruise wedding italy

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise seemed happy as can be at the 2011 Golden Globes, even though they split only a year later. 

Smiling at the Oscars

tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes went to the 2012 Vanity Fair Oscar party, which was one of their last appearances together before Holmes filed for divorce. Holmes filed due to fear of Tom Cruise abducting their child into the Church of Scientology.

Tom & Suri

tom cruise wedding italy

After filing for divorce, Katie Holmes won the custody battle for Suri against Tom Cruise.

Katie & Suri Forever

tom cruise wedding italy

Since their divorce in 2012, Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise have been one of the cutest mother-daughter duos we’ve ever seen

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tom cruise wedding italy

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' wedding photographer speaks out

  • The A-list couple tied the knot at Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in 2006
  • There to capture their nuptials on camera was photographer Robert Evans
  • He dished that the relationship between Cruise and Holmes 'seemed very real' 

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ' wedding photographer has candidly revealed what it was really like to shoot the event.

The celebrity couple tied the knot at Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy , in November 2006 in front of a star-studded guest list.

There to capture their nuptials on camera was Robert Evans who took about 5,000 snaps of the A-list occasion.

He dished that the relationship between Cruise and Holmes 'seemed very real and natural' before expressing the pitfalls of nondisclosure agreements.

For years, Cruise and Holmes were deemed one of Hollywood's biggest couples.

The Mission Impossible star infamously declared his love for his fellow actress, who was 16 years his junior, while jumping on a sofa during an appearance on the Oprah  Winfrey show.

And, after he proposed at the Eiffel Tower, the couple walked down the aisle in a Scientologist ceremony just months after welcoming daughter Suri.

The nuptials, which included a fireworks display over the 15th century castle, reportedly cost more than $3 million, according to E! News . 

The couple's photographer, who also shot Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt's ceremony in 2000, has now spoken to Yahoo Entertainment  about how the 'wedding of the century' unfolded.

Speaking about the build up to the event, Evans said that he was asked to submit his previous works for consideration - along with a whole host of other photographers - before he was hired by a very enthusiastic Cruise. 

'When I met him for the first time, he was very excited to meet me. It was around the time he was kind of getting the bad press for the couch-jumping thing. But he was super-nice. 

'He was like: "I'm so happy to meet you! When I saw your book, I was like: That's my guy! That's my guy!" He was excited about it.

'I'm meeting Tom Cruise for the first time, this is within the first minute of us meeting, and I was like... "Thank you?" I'm not great with compliments.' 

Evans and a fellow photographer flew to the location in Rome and stayed at the hotel next door to the newlyweds-to-be.

He covered two days of events prior to the official ceremony before 150 guests, including the likes of Jennifer Lopez, David and Victoria Beckham, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, descended on the event.

But he said that the 'wow factor' of the impressive list of guests soon wore off, admitting that he did not even remember some of them being there.

Discussing the relationship between Cruise and Holmes, Evans told the publication: 'It seemed very real and natural to me. They just seemed like they were having a great time and they were in love. 

'Obviously I'm not thinking about that [while I'm working], but you are observing and you see it. But then the pictures reflect it. I guess they're actors. They could have been faking it. But I just go there and do my job and shoot what I see.'

Evans usually takes a batch of up to 5,000 photographs at events such as the Cruise and Holmes wedding - but said that many of the more touching and intimate photos are never shared.

Revealing what he has learnt from being 'on the inside' of such A-list events, Evans said that 'the stuff that gets reported after is usually not very accurate. People are speculating because they don't know the truth.' 

He added that because of nondisclosure agreements, 'obviously, you can't tell anybody that the flowers were pink or the cake was this, so they all speculate, and a lot of stuff you hear, that's not what happened. 

'It gives a little insight into what it must be like to be a celebrity and having no privacy. Yes, I realize that's the job that they chose, but that's the con that goes with the pro.'

But the partnership between Cruise, who had been married twice before, and Holmes' was not set to last as the pair split just five years later.

The relationship had slowly crumbled, with sources claiming Holmes felt intimidated by the Church of Scientology and its influence before she filed for divorce in 2012.

The fallout of the bitter split has led Suri, who is now 17, to become estranged from her father, with the actress gaining 'sole custody' of her daughter in the wake of the divorce. 

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How Tom Cruise’s Wedding to Katie Holmes Changed Scientology Forever

The moment that turned the tide.

Marlow Stern

Marlow Stern

tom cruise wedding italy

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast

Even by Hollywood standards it was an opulent affair, with millions splashed on a 15th-century castle, crystal-laden Armani dresses, and a performance by crooner Andrea Bocelli ; the guest list, meanwhile, was a paparazzo’s dream, boasting the likes of Will and Jada, Posh and Becks, J. Lo, and scores more. But Tom Cruise’s 2006 Italian wedding to Katie Holmes will be remembered for another reason entirely, according to Mike Rinder.  

“It was a very significant moment in the history of Scientology, because it changed a lot of the media focus about Scientology,” offered Rinder on Scientology and the Aftermath .

Rinder would know. For 25 years, the Aussie served as a senior executive for the Church of Scientology and its fraternal religious order, Sea Organization , as well as the executive director of its Office of Special Affairs (OSA), which oversees the church’s myriad legal tussles, public relations, and internal investigations into members’ behavior . He left the controversial religion in 2007 due to, he says, the abusive practices of leader David Miscavige , and now co-hosts A&E’s Aftermath alongside another ex-Scientologist, Leah Remini.

But back to those star-studded nuptials. While Cruise had already raised plenty of eyebrows with his Matt Lauer mano a mano and couch-jumping on Oprah , the wedding was his big Scientology coming-out party—a traditional Scientology ceremony conducted by minister Norman Starkey, the executor of its late founder L. Ron Hubbard’s estate, with Miscavige serving as best man. And it was there that Remini, who was still a member of the church at the time, began questioning the church’s officials over the whereabouts of Miscavige’s wife Shelly , who was nowhere to be found. Remini is alleged to have received a tongue-lashing at the event from Tommy Davis, a Scientology executive who acted as Cruise’s personal handler.

“I mean, look at that famous quote from Tommy Davis to Leah [Remini] about Shelly at the Cruise wedding, ‘You don’t have the fucking rank to ask about this.’ They believe the world doesn’t have the fucking rank to ask about this; that nobody has the fucking rank to ask about this,” Rinder tells me. “It’s an interesting look at the mindset of Scientologists, and how out of touch with reality they are. They’ve lost touch with the world.”

Remini left Scientology in 2013, and has since become the face of Scientology whistleblowing. Things got worse for Cruise in Jan. 2008, when Gawker published a leaked version of his Scientology indoctrination video where the actor claimed, among other things, that Scientologists are the only ones who can help people who get in car accidents. Then came Going Clear , detailing the church’s alleged efforts to break up Cruise and Nicole Kidman , the Vanity Fair exposé about the church’s wife-auditioning for Cruise prior to arriving at Holmes, Remini’s allegation that Cruise personally punished fellow Scientologists , etc. And still, Cruise has somehow remained an A-list Hollywood star, with his recent blockbuster Mission: Impossible – Fallout grossing nearly $800 million worldwide, and the actor currently shooting a hotly-anticipated sequel to Top Gun . Rinder feels that the press is complicit.

“If you go on a movie press junket with Cruise you are required not to ask about Scientology, and a lot of journalists participate anyway. This is a really sad indictment of the Fourth Estate,” says Rinder.

He adds, “I still think that too many media do treat Scientology with kid gloves, and too many media are operating on the old view of the ‘power’ of Scientology to threaten and intimidate them. To a large extent, the threats and intimidation have increasingly been demonstrated to just be a bunch of hot air. It’s become a part of the routine to expect a legal letter if you do anything about Scientology, but Scientology hasn’t sued the media since TIME magazine back in 1992. And they lost that case.” (Cruise did not respond to requests for comment for this story; the Church of Scientology, through their spokesperson, called Rinder’s claims “false,” branded him a “liar,” and accused me of “religious prejudice and bias.”)

Cruise’s camp would argue that it’s unfair to delve into someone’s religious beliefs—except the actor, Rinder explains, “ used the fact that he was a movie star to promote Scientology for years.”

In addition to the indoctrination video, made in honor of Cruise receiving the Freedom Medal of Valor from Miscavige for being the world’s biggest disseminator of Scientology, there was the time he infamously erected Scientology tents on the set of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds , attempting to convert cast and crew members to the controversial religion.

“He had a volunteer ministers’ tent on War of the Worlds . It’s totally crazy,” says Rinder, who was still a high-ranking Scientology exec at the time. “You know, you can’t for years be the biggest proselytizer of Scientology because you’re a movie star, and even do it on the set of movies, and whenever you’re being interviewed about a movie you have to pop in something about L. Ron Hubbard or Scientology, and when it becomes a bit more inconvenient and prickly, and the subject matter isn’t what you want it to be, to go, ‘You’re not allowed to ask anymore,’ is wildly hypocritical.”

On top of all that, Rinder echoes Remini’s claim that Cruise is aware of the alleged abuses within the Church of Scientology, including the Hole .

“He is very aware,” Rinder says. “In fact, David Miscavige used to tell people when he was displeased with people in the Hole—and I was there when he said this—‘If you motherfuckers don’t get your shit together, I’m going to bring Tom down here and I’m going to have him beat you up.’ Tom is an insider . He is privy to all the bullshit that Miscavige has been up to. And many people outside of the Sea Organization are not, but he is because they are like two peas in a pod.”

Cruise, of course, is not the only celebrity who’s a prominent member of the Church of Scientology. There’s John Travolta , Danny Masterson , Elisabeth Moss, Michael Peña, Juliette Lewis, Laura Prepon, Kirstie Alley, Beck, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, and more. And this is apparently by design.

“Miscavige has always viewed—and so did Hubbard—celebrities as being the most effective way of gaining acceptability for Scientology and encouraging new people to get interested and participate. And of course the larger the celebrity, the greater the impact. For a time, Tom Cruise was the biggest movie star in the world, and the ultimate manifestation of that philosophy,” claims Rinder. “Cruise came along during the Miscavige era, he was his first major accomplishment, and Cruise has a very similar personality type to Miscavige—just over-the-top about everything, so Miscavige saw him as the perfect vehicle to be molded into the perfect representative for Scientology.”

Rinder chuckles. “So, it is very ironic that the Big Fish became the Big Stinking Fish, because that wedding—and the fallout from that wedding—changed everything.”

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All the Stars Who've Married in Italy

Hollywood's ultimate destination for tying the knot boasts lots of amore

tom cruise wedding italy

Sia & Dan Bernad

Surprise! The Australian singer and songwriter Sia wed her boyfriend Dan Bernad in an intimate, candlelit ceremony at Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's Villa Olivetta in Portofino, Italy, in May 2023.

The pair exchanged vows under an iron gazebo decorated with stunning pink, purple, yellow and white florals. The outdoor space also featured lavish gold tables topped with white candles in glass cases.

Ron Perlman & Allison Dunbar

The actor and his StartUp costar exchanged vows in Italy, she revealed in a June 14, 2022, Instagram post, per Page Six.

"Pulling a Kravis before it was a thing," she joked alongside her video.

Kourtney Kardashian & Travis Barker

Like many celebs before them, Kardashian and Barker made a weekend out of their May 2022 wedding, hosting a Friday night welcome dinner and Saturday luncheon in Portofino before their lavish yet intimate nuptials at part of the Dolce & Gabbana complex of properties that are all called L'Ulivetta. The newlyweds lingered in town for a few days after the celebrations, part of a mini-honeymoon abroad.

Lady Kitty Spencer & Michael Lewis

The niece of Princess Diana wed millionaire Lewis in front of friends and family at a luxurious ceremony in July 2021 at Villa Aldo Brandini in Frascati, Italy.

The bride wore an intricate Dolce and Gabbana gown for the special occasion; the Victorian-inspired piece features a high neck, puff sleeves and a cinched waist, which she paired with a lengthy train and subtle hoop earrings.

Joining Kitty on her special day were her brothers Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp and Samuel Aitken walked her down the aisle, according to Daily Mail .

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI & DAVID LEE

The couple's June 2019 wedding in Tuscany was a three-day affair, kicking off with cocktails and fireworks and ending with a makeshit nightclub and surprise performance by Lukas Graham, delighting attendees like fellow athletes and friends Pau Gasol and Jesse Palmer and Wozniacki's bridesmaid, Serena Williams .

GIACOMO GIANNIOTTI & NICHOLE G

The Italian-Canadian Grey's Anatomy actor married fiancée Nichole G. in a lavish wedding ceremony on April 28, 2019, in Rome.

In a photo from the nuptials, the newlyweds are seen walking hand-in-hand as they exit the wedding reception with their friends cheering in the background.

"To the bride and groom!" Giacomo captioned the photo on Instagram , written in both English and Italian. "Huge thank you to the incredible team that gave us the most incredible wedding we are forever indebted to you for making this day a dream come true. We are still floating. To all our friends and family who came, we love you and we will never forget you."

The couple said "I do" at Villa Pocci, which sits on a lake and overlooks Castel Gandolfo.

KATIE LEE & RYAN BIEGEL

The Cooking Channel host and her producer beau exchanged vows on the Amalfi Coast on Sept. 1, 2018, with 40 friends and family members present to soak up the sun (after a storm!) and tuck in to a delicious Italian meal.

"It felt so celebratory and special," Lee told PEOPLE . "It was more than I ever could have imagined it to be."

DAVID HASSELHOFF & HAYLEY ROBERTS

The former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff tied the knot with model Hayley Roberts in the southern region of Puglia on July 31, 2018. The couple, who had been engaged for two years, wed in a small ceremony with close friends and family.

DREW SCOTT & LINDA PHAN

More than 300 friends and family members traveled to Italy to toast the Property Brothers star and his bride, who wed on May 12, 2018. "We are still floating on clouds… today couldn't have been more magical," the couple told PEOPLE . "Surrounded by so many loved ones in such a beautiful place was unreal. We are very, very lucky. Friends, family, amazing food, blue skies and being even more in love than ever before - what more could we ask for?"

MATTHEW LEWIS & ANGELA JONES

The Harry Potter star got hitched in an undisclosed location in Italy (on an undisclosed date!), announcing the news in a cheeky May 2018 tweet. "Not only did I miss @ArcticMonkeys in LA but they were performing in Italy at the same time we were there and my wife made me get married instead. Fuming," Lewis joked alongside a stunning photo of the two from their wedding. He met Jones, an American who worked at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, in 2016.

KATE UPTON & JUSTIN VERLANDER

Days after the Houston Astros pitcher's big 2017 World Series win, he said "I do" to the supermodel in an outdoor ceremony in Italy. Upton donned a lace white gown with long veil, while her groom opted for a traditional tux. "I feel so lucky that I got to marry my best friend!!" she tweeted after the ceremony.

LIZZY CAPLAN & TOM RILEY

The Masters of Sex and Mean Girls star married British actor and producer Riley in Italy over Labor Day weekend in 2017, PEOPLE confirmed. "This one seems fertile," Riley posted on Instagram, along with a black-and-white photo of the newlyweds sitting on the ground laughing while at their wedding. "She shall make a satisfactory first wife."

JESSICA CHASTAIN & GIAN LUCA PASSI DE PREPOSULO

On June 10, 2017, the Oscar nominee wed her love of four years in the northern Italian city of Treviso at the Passi de Preposulo family estate Villa Tiepolo Passi. A-list guests like Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt were on hand for the festivities, which included a Friday night welcome dinner in Venice.

GEORGE CLOONEY & AMAL ALAMUDDIN

Auguri , George and Amal! The couple exchanged vows in an intimate Venice ceremony on Sept. 27, 2014, about one year after they were first photographed together.

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS & DAVID BURTKA

Harris and Burtka, together for 10 years, pulled out all the stops for their Sept. 6, 2014, nuptials . Matching Tom Ford tuxedos and a performance from Elton John were the highlights of the intimate event, which also included two other stars: their then-3½-year-old twins Harper and Gideon. Following the celebration, Harris Tweeted. , "Yup, we put the 'n' and 'd' in 'husband.'"

KIM KARDASHIAN & KANYE WEST

That's amore ! In an epic weekend that spanned from Paris to Florence, Kardashian and West tied the knot in May 2014 at Italy's Forte di Belvedere , a 16th century fortress known for its sweeping panoramas and the fabulous contemporary art exhibitions it hosts. After a pre-wedding party in Versailles, France, the couple flew their 200 guests across the border for a grand Italian celebration - no surprise considering their elaborate engagement at San Francisco's AT&T Park in October 2013. The couple chose the Italian city for a pretty personal reason: It's where they conceived daughter North.

JOHN LEGEND & CHRISSY TEIGEN

It took them seven years, but singer Legend and model Teigen finally made it down the aisle in September 2013 , exchanging "I dos" in front of family and friends in Lake Como, Italy. The bride wore three different Vera Wang gowns throughout the night, and was treated to a sweet serenade by her new husband during the reception, which featured one pretty delicious cake .

GIULIANA & BILL RANCIC

If they vowed to love each other through sickness and in health, it worked. In 2007, the two jetted to the island of Capri to marry in a traditional Catholic ceremony. The newlyweds then shuttled their 190 guests to a piazza where Neapolitan dancers made merry on the way to the reception.

TOM CRUISE & KATIE HOLMES

It ended in divorce but began with a fairy tale. In November 2006, Cruise and Holmes capped off their whirlwind romance (motorcycle rides! couch jumping! Suri!) with a wedding that captivated Italy and the world. The couple married in a sunset ceremony at Odescalchi Castle in Lake Bracciano as famous guests like Victoria Beckham , Jennifer Lopez and Will Smith looked on.

EMILY BLUNT & JOHN KRASINSKI

After falling in love at first sight , then dating for two years, Blunt and Krasinski made it official in July 2010 - Italian style - with a private ceremony in Como. No surprise here: Krasinski's friend and director George Clooney has long kept an estate on Lake Como, and was one of the guests at the nuptials.

BEVERLEY MITCHELL & MICHAEL CAMERON

The town of Ravello set the stage for 7th Heaven star Mitchell, who married accountant Cameron there in 2008. In the actress's bridal party was one Jessica Biel , who along with now-husband Justin Timberlake , stayed at a $2,800-a-night villa in Positano during the festivities.

JESSICA BIEL & JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

Four years after her pal Mitchell's destination wedding, Biel and Timberlake followed suit with their own Italian nuptials in 2008. "It's great to be married, the ceremony was beautiful and it was so special to be surrounded by our family and friends," the couple told PEOPLE exclusively.

SOFIA COPPOLA & THOMAS MARS

Swoon: When Coppola wed Phoenix frontman Mars in an August 2011 civil ceremony, the couple traveled to her grandparents' hometown of Bernalda and said "I do" in the garden at the Palazzo Margherita, a historical building owned by her father, Francis Ford Coppola. The wedding meal was strictly Italian: cheeses, figs, pasta - and, of course, wine.

CAT DEELEY & PATRICK KIELTY

When in Rome! Deeley and Irish comedian Kielty honored their love with an intimate (and rose-strewn) ceremony at a chapel in the Italian capital in September 2012.

PETRA ECCLESTONE & JAMES STUNT

There were fireworks - literally! - over Formula One heiress Ecclestone's ultra-lavish August 2011 Roman celebration . The British socialite (here, with her father) exchanged vows with businessman Stunt at Castello Orsini-Odescalchi (where Tom and Katie wed) and entertained her high society guests - including Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie - with the help of Eric Clapton and the Black Eyed Peas.

MELISSA JOAN HART & MARK WILKERSON

Though a power outage threatened to foil Hart's 2003 nuptials in Florence to musician Wilkerson, the veteran performer kept her cool - and even found time for a nap before the ceremony, which took place in a villa that reminded Hart's wedding planner of Versailles.

CLAIRE FORLANI & DOUGRAY SCOTT

For the busy couple, getting married in the small village of Pievebovigliana "was like a vacation." Actors Forlani and Scott invited more than 100 guests to join them as they tied the knot in 2007, and to dine with them on dishes prepared by Forlani's Italian father, Pier.

SALMA HAYEK & FRANÇOIS-HENRI PINAULT

Because a civil ceremony on Valentine's Day in Paris just wouldn't do, Hayek and French billionaire Pinault hosted a spectacular wedding weekend in Venice, complete with a masked ball, in April 2009. Along with Charlize Theron , Penélope Cruz , Bono and more, the happy couple celebrated with "one magical moment after another."

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Stars arrive in Rome for TomKat wedding

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will likely wed Saturday in a Scientology ceremony held at a 15th-century Italian castle in a lakeside town near Rome, the town’s mayor said Thursday.

The wedding party, along with guests, are then expected to attend a banquet the same day in Rome, Bracciano Mayor Patrizia Riccioni said.

For weeks rumors have focused on Odescalchi Castle in the sleepy town of Bracciano as the likely venue for the celebrity wedding. Riccioni told a news conference Thursday she had met the couple the day before somewhere outside of her town, but she would not say where.

She was coy about other details, too, saying only that she expected the couple to arrive Saturday morning at the castle, which overlooks Lake Bracciano, for what she believed would be a Scientology wedding ceremony, followed by a banquet. She said she expected the couple to return to the Italian capital the same day.

Cruise, 44, star of the “Mission: Impossible” films, and Holmes, 27, have been staying at a luxury hotel near the Spanish Steps in Rome. They were photographed Thursday with their infant daughter, Suri, as they walked to a restaurant in the city.

Those spotted going into the restaurant included “Mission Impossible III” director J.J. Abrams, Brooke Shields and Jennifer Lopez. Lopez’s husband, Marc Anthony, briefly stepped out to smoke a cigarette.

While Riccioni stopped short of confirming the actual date of the wedding, the town’s Web site late Thursday had a picture of Cruise and Holmes under the headline, “The wedding of the year in Bracciano, Saturday, 18 November 2006.”

“I want to thank Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for choosing this venue for such an important event,” Riccioni said, showing reporters a congratulations card she had for the couple.

“When we met, they seemed to me to be far more normal people than what I believed. I think all this secrecy depends on them wanting to keep their marriage private and intimate,” the mayor said, sparking laughter in the room filled with the journalists who have been trying for days to find clues about how the wedding will be held.

The Hollywood stars’ late-Wednesday visit to Rome City Hall caused a flurry of speculation that they were getting a marriage license, but city hall said Thursday it was only a courtesy visit to the mayor, a big movie buff.

As of midday Thursday, the Bracciano Town Hall was insisting it had not received any request to celebrate the wedding, but preparations for a party appeared to be under way at castle.

The Bracciano Town Hall said, however, that the mayor would not need much time to prepare for a civil ceremony if the necessary papers were presented before Saturday.

To obtain a marriage license, U.S. citizens planning to marry in Italy must present specific documents — including their passports, birth certificates and an affidavit that there is no impediment to their marriage. Because the documents need to be translated into Italian and certified, the process is generally time-consuming.

“If they’re getting married with these rites, it won’t be with a minister from the Rome church, so I would imagine that they would bring their own,” spokesman Fabrizio D’Agostino said.

D’Agostino said an exchange of vows with a Scientology rite was not legally recognized in Italy, and would have to be preceded or followed by a civil union.

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Single Irina Shayk is ‘boyfriend shopping’ after Tom Brady fling: source

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Calling all eligible bachelors?

A source tells us Irina Shayk is looking to find a new man after her fling with NFL hunk Tom Brady fizzled.  

“She is shopping, but her dating pool is a tiny group of people,” says our source. “She needs famous, good looking and money. How many of those are there? Five, ten?” 

Oh, the problems of the rich and gorgeous!

Irina Shayk

We hear the Russian model is “looking in Europe and in the USA.” 

Our source suggested the newly single Tom Cruise as one possibility, after the “Top Gun” star recently split with Russian socialite Elsina Khayrova.

We hear Shayk, 38, who was recently on the cover of Vogue Italia, will attend the Met Gala , the so-called “Oscars of Fashion” thrown by Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, on the first Monday in May.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by irina shayk (@irinashayk)

Irina Shayk

Shayk and her ex, Brady, 46, were first spotted together in August after Page Six exclusively reported that sparks flew for the supermodel when she met him at a starry wedding in Italy in June.

They were last seen together in mid-January at hotspot Fouquet’s in NYC.

But Page Six reported in September that the retired quarterback was playing the field , and that Shayk was also dating other people.

By late October, we were told that things had fizzled between them.

tom cruise wedding italy

However, he and Shayk spent time together again in December during Art Basel Miami Beach. We also spotted Brady hanging out at a billionaire’s bash surrounded by women that same week.

Shayk has had a long on-again-off again relationship with her ex, Bradley Cooper, and the pair shares a daughter, 4.

Cooper is currently dating Gigi Hadid. 

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Tom Cruise pictured partying during daughter Suri Cruise's 18th birthday weekend

The mission impossible star shares suri with ex-wife katie holmes.

Hanna Fillingham

Tom Cruise is a father-of-three and on April 18th, his youngest daughter  Suri Cruise turned 18. 

The Mission Impossible star shares Suri with his ex-wife, Katie Holmes , and the birthday girl was pictured looking happy as she walked around New York City with a friend, while clutching onto a birthday present. 

Suri is thought to have celebrated more over the weekend with her mom, while Tom was pictured in London at another milestone birthday party. 

Tom was one of the many celebrity guests at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday , which was held at Oswald's. 

Other well-known faces in attendance included Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek and Marc Anthony. The Spice Girls also reunited, with Emma Bunton, Geri Horner, Mel B and Mel C posing with the birthday girl. 

Tom Cruise at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party

Tom was all smiles in a number of photos posted on the night, looking smart in a tuxedo. As well as Suri, Tom is also father to adopted grown-up children, Isabella 'Bella', 31, and Connor, 29, who he shares with ex-wife Nicole Kidman.

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Bella lives in London and has a close relationship with her dad, having been spotted out showing her support for him on numerous occasions by wearing various Top Gun T-shirts, a nod to her dad's film. 

Tom Cruise leaving Victoria Beckham's party in London

None of Tom's children have spoken out about their relationship with their dad in recent years and the actor is incredibly private when it comes to his personal life. 

When Suri was younger, however, she was in the public eye a lot more. She was born in Los Angeles where she was raised for the first few years of her life, before her parents' separation in 2012. She then relocated with her mom Katie to New York City. 

BrosNYC / BACKGRID

Katie has raised Suri to be incredibly down-to-earth and the pair have a close relationship. It's clear that Suri has developed her parents' talents for performing, and showcased her incredible singing voice back in 2022. 

Suri was heard singing the opening credits of Katie's film, Alone Together, when she was just 15. She sang a pitch-perfect rendition of Blue Moon, and her mom was more than proud. 

Suri Cruise and Katie Holmes

Chatting to Yahoo! Entertainment about her daughter's role in the movie, she said: "She's very, very talented. She said she would do it and she recorded it and I let her do her thing. "That's the way I direct in general: It's like, 'This is what I think we all want - go do your thing'." 

The mom-of-one was asked why she chose Suri for the job and she said: "I always want the highest level of talent, so I asked her." 

In 2022, Katie gave another rare snippet into her relationship with Suri, telling InStyle: "I love her so much. My biggest goal has always been to nurture her into her individuality. To make sure she is 100 per cent herself and strong, confident, and able. And to know it."

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were wed just after sunset on November 18, 2006 at Odescalchi Castle overlooking Lake Braccino outside of Rome, Italy....

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