Brooke Shields has shed light on her fall-out with Tom Cruise, and his attempts to mend things with a personal apology.
The Blue Lagoon actress unpacked her extraordinary life story in her latest memoir, Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, which is on bookshelves today.
In the pages, the 59-year-old candidly opened up about her career highs, as well as her relationship with her family, and her marriage to husband Chris Henchy.
One eyebrow-raising segment detailed her feud with the Top Gun actor, after she spoke openly about her experience with postpartum depression in her 2005 book, Down Came The Rain.
The 62-year-old later appeared on the Today show in a heated interview with Matt Lauer, and called his fellow actor out for publicly sharing her use of antidepressants, branding her ‘irresponsible’ for ‘spreading misinformation’ as her medications couldn’t ‘cure anything’.
Days later, Brooke responded with a scathing op-ed in the New York Times, slating his remarks.
Reflecting on their issues in her latest memoir, she wrote, via Us Weekly: ‘Had Tom taken a public swing at me before I became a mother, I probably would have stayed quiet. I would have ignored his ridiculous rant.
‘I might have been content to sit back while this very famous man hijacked my experience to advance his own (deluded) agenda. I would have been satisfied that his behavior would speak for itself.
‘Sitting quietly and letting myself be attacked might have been my approach a decade earlier — I might have even regretted sharing my story or felt insecure that maybe my career was stalling while a powerful male movie star was singling me out, sure that I’d never stand a chance in that fight — but now I was emboldened by life experience.’
Brooke wrote of suffering with postpartum depression in her 2005 memoir, after welcoming daughter Rowan two years before.
Addressing Tom’s interview in her op-ed, she also shared that the drugs she was prescribed, as well as weekly therapy sessions, ‘are what saved me and my family’.
‘While Mr Cruise says that Mr Lauer and I do not “understand the history of psychiatry,” I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Mr Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression,’ she penned. ‘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.’
According to People Magazine, Brooke explained that her then-publicist initially urged her not to ‘dignify his comments with a response’, but she wanted to take a stand for herself and others.
‘I was sticking up for myself, and for women who were suffering, against irrational and dangerous comments from an unschooled actor who was speaking way out of his depth,’ she continued in her memoir, noting that she later ‘fired that publicist’.
The Mother of the Bride star later revealed that Tom stopped by with a personal apology, recalling: ‘He came to my house and said he was sorry.
‘It wasn’t the world’s best apology, but it’s what he was capable of and I accepted it.’
Elsewhere in the hugely candid new read, she lifted the lid on her home life, including her marriage to husband Chris, who she tied the knot with in 2001 and shares children Rowan and Grier with.
Speaking about their close bond, she said that she has lost her sex drive after going through ‘bodily’ drawbacks of aging.
‘I had a fervent sex drive when I was young, but I never felt like I could step into that appetite in the way that I wanted to,’ she insisted. ‘I waited [until I was 22] because I had the weight of the world on me.
‘And even once we started sleeping together, I never really let loose. Oh, how I wish I’d just let the lust take over!
‘And now here I am, more than thirty-five years later, sometimes pretending I’m asleep when I know Chris is in the mood. And that has nothing to do with Chris – he’s hot!
‘For me to fully enjoy sex at this point, I need my lotions and potions, the right sleepwear (maybe calling it sleepwear is contributing to the problem), my special pillow, and maybe a tequila so I can relax.
‘My doctor told me I should start taking testosterone — sure you might get a few more whiskers, but that’s what tweezers are for — but I haven’t gotten there yet.
‘For now, I’m counting on the old “the more you have it, the more you’ll enjoy it” approach.’
Brooke Shields addresses bizarre 00s fall-out with ‘deluded’ Tom Cruise