Tom Cruise's First Girlfriend Reveals How 'Top Gun' Star Was 'Shy, Skinny Boy' Who 'Barely Knew How to Kiss'
Tom Cruise's first girlfriend has dissed his kisses.
Jan. 15 2025, Published 8:30 a.m. ET
For decades, millions of women have called Tom Cruise the sexiest man alive – but his first girlfriend remembers him as a bashful, skinny teenage boy she taught how to kiss.
RadarOnline.com can reveal while the Top Gun star is notoriously tight-lipped, Laurie Hobbs is kissing and telling all about her relationship with the star.
"And although he was awkward, young Tom was a fast learner," she said.
Her unforgettable first date with Cruise was back in 1978 when the actor, then 15, was a sophomore at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Ky.
Hobbs recalled teaching a shy teenage Cruise how to kiss during their high school days.
Laurie was a 15-year-old blond bookworm at nearby Sacred Heart Academy.
She had her heart set on going to a school dance with handsome Tom Cruise Mapother – his full name before he shortened it at the behest of Hollywood casting agents.
"He wasn't at all what you'd call cool. He struck me as being shy, sort of uneasy around girls," Hobbs added.
Cruise had "a secret fear that girls wouldn't like him because he was so small", she also claimed.
Tired of waiting for Cruise to ask her, Hobbs made the first move.
"Are you going to take me to the dance or what?” she demanded.
Despite his fears, Cruise took Hobbs up on her offer.
Before getting with Kidman and Holmes, Cruise was a bashful teen with first-love jitters.
When the big night came, they went to a friend's apartment and sat on a couch. Hobbs, hardly talking, inched her hand close to his and managed to touch his hand. "We just lunged toward each other awkwardly and started kissing," she said.
"But we didn't seem to be able to get our mouths in the right place at first. I kept thinking: 'I hope I don't start Laughing'. Then things got pretty hot and heavy. Hands shaking... knees knocking, you name it.
"My head was spinning and I could hardly breathe. I could hear my heart banging away in my eardrums. First kisses are like that- you think you're going to faint. Once or twice, I opened my eyes to make sure his eyes were closed, and they were, so I knew he meant it."
Hobbs remembers her awkward first kiss with a skinny, nervous Cruise in 1978.
Cruise and Hobbs dated for a few months, but things ended when his family moved to New Jersey.
"These days I often wonder what life would be like if Tom and I had gotten married. And now and then, I flatter myself that I actually taught the world's sexiest man to kiss", Hobbs told RadarOnline.com.
After that high-school makeout session, Hobbs became a mother and was married.
Decades before 'Top Gun', Cruise's first girlfriend said he barely knew how to kiss.
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Meanwhile, Cruise is divorced three times –from Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes.
RadarOnline.com tracked down 62-year-old Hobbs in Louisville, but this time, the hospitality supervisor insisted on keeping the lips she locked with Cruise firmly shut.
