‘Left Me Gobsmacked’: Brooke Shields Says Tom Cruise Publicly Shamed Her For Taking Medication

Brooke Shields said Tom Cruise ruthlessly shamed her for taking medication after she had given birth.

The iconic model and actress spoke out about her public feud with the “Mission Impossible” star in her new memoir, “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old,” according to the New York Post. The 59-year-old said she had to defend herself against comments made by Cruise when she admitted she required medication to overcome her postpartum depression in 2005. Shields wrote in her memoir that Cruise “disparaged” her and made “dangerous” comments that left her deeply affected.

Shields and Cruise got into a heated exchange in 2005 when the scientologist shamed her for using medication to treat postpartum depression. Shields had given birth to her first child, her daughter Rowan, in 2003, and had candidly described her experience with postpartum in her 2005 memoir, “Down Came the Rain.”

“There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance,” Cruise told Matt Lauer on “Today” in 2005.

“The thing that I’m saying about Brooke is that there’s misinformation,” he said.

Cruise laced into Shields a bit more when he went on to say, “And she doesn’t understand the history of psychiatry.”

Brooke wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling out Cruise for his behavior that same year.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JULY 03: Tom Cruise attends the Australian premiere of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” on July 03, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

He “left me gobsmacked,” she wrote in her recent memoir. The famous actress went on to say,  “I was never one to find myself in a public feud.”

Shields explained why she responded by calling him out.

“Had Tom taken a public swing at me before I became a mother, I probably would have stayed quiet,” she wrote in her memoir, according to the New York Post.

“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,” Shields said.

“I would have been satisfied that his behavior would speak for itself.”

Shields said turning 40 before the feud broke out helped her gain perspective on the matter.

“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,” she wrote, according to the New York Post.

The famous actress seems to have moved on from that moment.

She admitted in her memoir that Cruise “eventually” apologized for shaming her, although she said he didn’t apologize publicly. (RELATED: Brooke Shields Reveals Shocking Violation She Endured During Surgery)

“It wasn’t the world’s best apology, but it’s what he was capable of, and I accepted it,” she said.