Cruise: 'Criticism brought family closer'

Tom Cruise has revealed that receiving bad press in the wake of his infamous couch-jumping incident helped bring he and wife Katie Holmes closer together.

The actor declared his love for Holmes while appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005. He later found himself under fire due to his faith in Scientology and his dismissal of psychiatry as a pseudoscience.

In an interview with The Mirror, Cruise said: "There are things that I could have done better. I could have handled things better.

"I was surprised at the criticism but it brought everyone closer together: Katie's entire family and my family. Going through that stuff is not pleasant and I think it hit an extreme, but Kate's a very sure and confident and strong woman. She gets it, you know."

Cruise added that he has moved on from his past mistakes, saying: "As a father and a husband you want to protect your family and tell them not to worry because it is all going to be okay. You just learn from it and move on and I know that.

"I have a blessed life because I have a happy family and children that I adore and everyone knows how I feel about Kate. It just brought us even closer together."