Brooke Shields Wrote About What Really Happened When Tom Cruise Infamously Ranted About Her And Postpartum Depression

Brooke Shields revealed what went down with Tom Cruise after his infamous rant about her in 2005.

For context, back in the mid-'00s, Brooke published a memoir called Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression. In it, she discussed taking an antidepressant after the birth of her first child, Rowan.

In turn, Tom criticized Brooke's use of an SSRI on The Today Show. Calling psychiatry "a pseudo-science," he said Brooke didn't "understand the history of psychiatry" and accused her of promoting "dangerous" drugs. He instead said that exercise and vitamins should be used, which is in line with Scientology's beliefs.

Subsequently, Brooke wrote an op-ed for the New York Times where she aptly wrote, "I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression." The following year, she said that Tom "came over to my house and he gave me a heartfelt apology."

In her new memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, Brooke reportedly said of the apology, "It wasn’t the world’s best apology, but it’s what he was capable of, and I accepted it."

"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 continued, as per Rolling Stone.

"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," Brooke added. "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.”

Thankfully, writing the op-ed gave Brooke the opportunity to speak against “irrational and dangerous comments from an unschooled actor who was speaking way out of his depth," as well as furthering "discussions on the reality and prevalence of postpartum depression.”

Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman is now available.