Brooke Shields has reflected on her feud with Tom Cruise after he publicly criticised her for taking antidepressants.
In 2005, Cruise branded Shields “irresponsible” for revealing that she took antidepressants to help her cope with postpartum depression.
The Blue Lagoon star, 59, had said in her 2005 memoir, Down Came The Rain, that she used the medication following the birth of her daughter Rowan in 2003.
Cruise, 62, singled Shields out as he claimed there was “no such thing as a chemical imbalance” during a heated interview with then Today host Matt Lauer.
The Mission Impossible actor added that antidepressants “mask the problem” and that Shields is spreading “misinformation” and “doesn’t understand the history of psychiatry.”
Shields hit back at Cruise at the time with an op-ed for the New York Times, writing: “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.”
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The Pretty Baby star reignited their disagreement in her new memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old, which came out on Tuesday.
”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,” she penned, per Us Weekly.
“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.”
The Mother of the Bride actress later revealed that Cruise apologized to her for his comments.
“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,” she wrote in her new memoir.
Shields added that she was pleased she wrote the op-ed about Cruise’s “irrational and dangerous” comments as an “unschooled actor.”
The actress shares daughters Rowan, now 21, and Grier, 18, with her husband, Chris Henchy.
