Brooke Shields is looking back on her public spat with Tom Cruise.
In her new memoir, “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old,” the 59-year-old actress explained why she defended herself against the “Top Gun” star, 62, when he publicly shamed her for taking medication to address her postpartum depression in 2005.
“Had Tom taken a public swing at me before I became a mother, I probably would have stayed quiet,” Shields wrote in her book. “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,” she continued.
The “Pretty Baby” actress said that Cruise’s attack “left me gobsmacked,” adding, “I was never one to find myself in a public feud.”
She also noted that turning 40 shortly before the feud broke out changed her perspective on the drama.
“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,” Shields wrote.
In 2005, Shields and Cruise got into it when the famous scientologist shamed her for taking medication to address her postpartum depression. Shields gave birth to her first child, daughter Rowan, in 2003, and detailed her postpartum struggles in her 2005 memoir, “Down Came the Rain.”
“There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance. The thing that I’m saying about Brooke is that there’s misinformation,” Cruise told Matt Lauer on “Today” in 2005. “She doesn’t understand the history of psychiatry.”
In response, Shields wrote an op-ed in the New York Times and called out Cruise’s “ridiculous rant.”
She said in her book that Cruise “disparaged me” and made “dangerous” comments about her.
Despite their drama, Shields still scored an invite to Cruise and Katie Holmes’ Nov. 2006 wedding.
In her new memoir, Shields confirmed that Cruise “eventually” apologized for shaming her, but “not publicly.”
“It wasn’t the world’s best apology, but it’s what he was capable of, and I accepted it,” she said.
Shields previously opened up about her beef with Cruise in her 2023 Hulu documentary, “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.”
“It was so ridiculous to me,” she said about Cruise’s 2005 comments. “It’s not about the moral thing, or the right thing, or the good thing. It’s about who has more power.”
