The Time Tom Cruise Locked Lips With An Actress Meant To Be On Her Honeymoon

Most monogamous married couples would shudder at the thought of their partner kissing someone else while on their honeymoon — unless, of course, you're Michelle Monaghan and Peter White, and that "someone else" is Tom Cruise. In a December 2023 Collider interview conducted by her "Family Plan" co-star Mark Wahlberg, Monaghan revealed why she spent the days immediately after her wedding cozying up to Cruise and not her new husband. 

The actor and graphic designer married in August 2005 in a private, intimate wedding in White's home state of Queensland, Australia. But instead of riding off in the sunset with her groom after the ceremony, Monaghan hopped on a plane to start filming "Mission Impossible III" with her co-star Tom Cruise. Monaghan recalled her first scene with Cruise to Wahlberg which, nervewrackingly, was a steamy one-on-one scene.

"I was so nervous," Monaghan recalled in her Collider interview. "My husband was like, 'Don't worry, you're gonna follow his lead. You're gonna have a great time. It's going to be wonderful.'"

Lots of people get nervous about the nights after their wedding, but not a lot of people can say it's because they have to kiss Tom Cruise on camera. Michelle Monaghan told her "Family Plan" co-star Mark Wahlberg that her first intimate scene with Cruise on the set of "Mission Impossible III" was the most anxious she'd ever felt the day before a shoot. Luckily, Monaghan's husband, Peter White, was incredibly supportive of his bride.

"I come home at the end of the day, open up the hotel room, and he said, 'How was it?'" The actor recalled. "I was like, 'Oh my god, it was amazing. He was so nice. It was great.'" He goes, 'How cool is it that you were making out with Tom Cruise on our honeymoon?' Because we're just such fans."

Wahlberg was incredulous at first, pressing Monaghan on whether her husband was jealous of her alternative honeymoon plans. However, Monaghan insisted that White wasn't only not jealous — he was proud of her. The actor praised her husband for his supportive attitude, calling it "a testament to the man that I married."

While at the London premiere of "Mission Impossible III," Michelle Monaghan, who plays Tom Cruise's on-screen wife, Julia, said that working opposite Cruise "was like the best day at the office. It's the jackpot. I've been a fan of his work for such a long time, and you know if you're going to work with him, you're going to be in good hands" (via ABC News). Monaghan even told Cruise's then-fiancée Katie Holmes, "I understand why you keep him around."

Cruise had similarly kind opinions of his fellow co-star. When the time came to create the 2018 film "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," one of Cruise's first requests was to bring back his on-screen wife. Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie told the Toronto Sun that Cruise wanted to find a resolution between his character and his wife, which was a success. The sixth installment of the "Mission Impossible" franchise won the Best Action Movie Critics' Choice Award and Best Action or Adventure Film Saturn Award in 2018.

Monaghan's role in "Mission Impossible III" was her most prominent acting role in her career thus far. And although that required her to lock lips with another man when she should've been on her honeymoon, her husband, Peter White, was there to cheer her on — proving that he was the real jackpot Monaghan was lucky enough to hit.