Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: A Timeline

From a childhood crush to hyperspeed courtship, parenthood and a storybook wedding, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes‘ Hollywood romance seemed to defy all odds. But the fairytale ended today, with news that Holmes has filed for divorce from Cruise, short of their sixth anniversary. Here now is a chronology of major events in their high-profile, and ultimately doomed, relationship.

1980s
According to later interviews, as a young girl growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Holmes always had a crush on Tom, her movie star idol.

October 2004
A year after she’d left her defining role as Joey Potter on Dawson’s Creek, Holmes gives an interview to Seventeen magazine, in which she says, “I think every little girl dreams about (her wedding). I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise.”

April 2005
Katie meets Tom for the first time, ostensibly regarding a role in Mission: Impossible 3.

STORY: Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes Divorcing 

April 27, 2005
The couple makes their new love public by appearing together in Rome, where Cruise had traveled to receive a David di Donatello Award for lifetime achievement. Both had major films (War of the Worlds and Batman Begins) coming out around the time, leading many to speculate the romance was a publicity stunt.

May 23, 2005
Cruise appears on The Oprah Winfrey Show and declares his love for Holmes, prompting him to punch the floor, grab Winfrey’s hands and, most memorably, jump on her couch with joy. He also pulls Holmes out from backstage. The appearance instantly becomes infamous, known as Cruise’s “couch jumping” episode.

June 13, 2005
Holmes converts from Catholicism to the Church of Scientology.

June 16, 2005
The couple announce their engagement, just shy of eight weeks from having first met. Cruise proposed to Holmes in Paris at the Eiffel Tower at a restaurant on the Tower’s second floor. He does not get on one knee, but he presents her with a ring reportedly containing a five-carat yellow diamond. She says yes. No date is announced.

June 24, 2005
Cruise and Matt Lauer face off for a heated argument on The Today Show over comments Cruise made criticizing Brooke Shields for using the anti-depressant drug Paxil to battle postpartum depression. Cruise calls Lauer “glib” in his defense of psychiatry as a real branch of medicine.

October 6, 2005
The couple, dubbed TomKat by the media, announce they are expecting a child.

December 1, 2005
Cruise purchases a sonogram machine to track his baby’s development, eliciting a warning from The Food and Drug Administration saying private use of a sonogram violates the law.

April 18, 2006
At Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., Holmes gives birth to a baby girl weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces. They name her Suri. A statement from the couple on the significance of the name says Suri “is a word with origins in both Hebrew and Persian. In Hebrew, it means ‘princess’ and in Persian, ‘red rose.’”

VIDEO: Tom Cruise on Becoming Stacee Jaxx in ‘Rock of Ages’ 

November 18, 2006
At a lavish affair at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, the couple wed. Holmes wore a Giorgio Armani gown featuring an ivory skil train adorned with lace and Swarovski beaded crystals. Cruise wore a navy-blue tuxedo, also by Armani. Celebrities in attendance include Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jim Carrey, Jenna Elfman, Victoria and David Beckham, Jennifer Lopez and then-husband Marc Anthony, Jerry Bruckheimer and JJ Abrams.

August 22, 2006
Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone announces that Paramount Pictures is ending its 14-year relationship with Cruise, citing the damage done by his various public controversies to his box office viability.

October 2006
Suri appears on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, alongside her proud parents. Annie Leibovitz is the photographer

January 15, 2008
An internal Scientology video featuring Cruise discussing what the Church means to him is leaked onto Gawker.com, and instantly goes viral. The video inspires scores of parodies.

August 14, 2008
Tropic Thunder opens, in which Cruise wears heavy makeup and a fat suit to play Les Grossman, an obnoxious, hip-hop-loving studio executive. His performance earns positive reviews, and is seen as a step towards improving Cruise’s public image.

September 21, 2009
Suri is photographed by paparazzi wearing high heels.

June 15, 2012
Cruise plays against type again, starring as Stacee Jaxx, a hair-metal rock star in New Line’s Rock of Ages. The film underperforms, taking in $14.4 million at the box office in its opening weekend, giving it a third-place finish. Still, Cruise receives positive notices for his portrayal.

June 29, 2012
Holmes files for divorce from Cruise, making it the third divorce for him and her first. In a statement to the media, Cruise’s attorney calls it “a private matter” and that her primary concern is “her daughter’s best interest.” Cruise’s rep offers that the actor is “deeply saddened” about the news and is “concentrating on his three children.”