Tom Cruise spoke publicly about his ex-wife Nicole Kidman to Vanity Fair in 2002, just a year after the former couple’s divorce, and hasn’t said much since.

At the time, the magazine asked Cruise why he and Kidman had split, and the “Mission: Impossible” star responded vaguely, insisting twice to the outlet that Kidman “knows why.”

And now we have at least one idea about why they broke up as well — because the man does not know how to give a compliment.

That is, based on Cruise’s most recent remark about Kidman.

In the June 2025 issue of Sight and Sound (via Us Weekly), a print magazine, Cruise made what appears to be his first public remark about Kidman in over 20 years. He even said something nice about her — just in the most self-serving way possible.

In the article, the “Top Gun” star spoke about Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 erotic thriller, “Eyes Wide Shut.” Cruise and Kidman, who were still together at the time, starred in the film as the married couple William and Alice Harford.

“I flew out to [Kubrick’s] house, and I landed in his backyard. I read the script the day before and we spent the day talking about it. I knew all of his films,” Cruise said. “Then it was basically he and I getting to know each other. And when we were doing that, I suggested Nicole play the role [of Alice]. Because, obviously, she’s a great actress.”

Although Cruise’s remark seems kind, his claim that he got Kidman the part doesn’t quite add up.

It’s well documented that Kubrick always wanted a real-life couple to play the two leads in his film, with The New York Times reporting in 1999 that the legendary filmmaker’s first choice for the parts were Alec Baldwin and his wife at the time, Kim Basinger.

So, it’s safe to assume that if Kubrick was interested in the “Jerry Maguire” star, he was also already interested in the “Practical Magic” star.

For her part, Kidman’s remarks about her divorce from Cruise imply that she was surprised by the marriage’s end.

The Oscar-winner told DuJour magazine (via People) in 2012 that she believed “our life together was perfect,” and said the split was “a shock to my system.”

“I fell madly, passionately in love,” said Kidman, who was 23 when she married Cruise in 1990. “I was reeling with Tom. I would have gone to the ends of the earth for him.”

However, she did reveal to the magazine that she had a slight inkling as to why they went their separate ways.

“We were in a bubble, just the two of us,” she told the magazine at the time. “We became very dependent on one another.”