‘Going Clear’ Film Claims Scientology Forced Tom Cruise to Dump Nicole Kidman Because Her Father Was a Renowned Psychologist in Australia

A controversial new documentary claims Scientology broke up Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s marriage because the Australian actress’ father is a renowned psychologist in her native country. Alex Gibney’s film “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Beliefs,” based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Wright, has made shocking accusations against the members of the church.

As the Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern reports what happened at the screening of the film Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in the U.S. on Sunday. According to him, the film, as expected and feared by the Church of Scientology, is a “scathing exposé” on the church, and includes accusations against Cruise, its most famous member.

Former second-highest ranking official of the church, Marty Rathbun, who left in 2004, revealed in the film how Scientology used intimidation tactics to force Cruise to split from Kidman. The church’s officials apparently were concerned about Kidman’s father, Anthony Kidman, who was a renowned psychologist in Australia.

Scientology is opposed to psychiatry and psychology, which made Kidman, having been raised as a Catholic and being a daughter of a psychologist, a “Potential Trouble Source.” PTS is defined by Scientology as someone who is “in some way connected to and being adversely affected by a suppressive person.”

Kidman also almost successfully convinced her then-husband to leave the church between 1992 and 2001. During the filming of their film “Eyes Wide Shut,” Cruise wasn’t returning Scientology head David Miscavige’s calls. His silence allegedly angered Miscavage, who was the best man to the couple’s wedding. He then assigned Rathbun to “facilitate the breakup [of Cruise] with Nicole Kidman,” Rathbun said.

And so began the aggressive campaign to get the “Top Gun” actor to dump his wife and the mother of his two children. The church allegedly had a private investigator to wiretap Kidman’s phone, had began “auditing” and psychoanalysing Cruise to gather personal information. All of which were sent to Miscavige.

Also, Scientology began the “re-education” of Connor and Isabella Cruise, the couple’s adopted children, to turn them against their mother so Cruise could be granted custody of the kids. When Cruise finally dumped Kidman in 2001, he had become more active in Scientology.

The church dismissed the HBO film as “one-sided” and “dishonest.” In a stated posted on Freedom magazine, it also said that director Gibney, co-producer Wright, and HBO “cherry-picked expelled, discredited former Scientologists who would help them advance their propaganda.” The film and the book from which it is based are apparently just vehicles for vendettas.

Cruise was introduced to the church by his first wife, Mimi Rogers, whom he married from 1987 to 1990. He met Kidman on the set of their film “Days of Thunder” in 1989, and married her in December 1990. His third wife was Katie Holmes, whom he married in 2006. They divorced in 2012, but unlike Kidman, Holmes got custody of their biological daughter, Suri.

The Academy Award-winning actress, meanwhile, also remarried. She wed fellow Aussie Keith Urban in 2006. They have two daughters together, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret. Anthony Kidman died of a heart attack at the age of 75 in 2014.