Cruise tells of being beaten by father

Actor Tom Cruise has told how he was bullied and beaten by his father as a child.

The Hollywood star, whose own baby with Katie Holmes is due any day, said his father was a “bully and a coward” and “a merchant of chaos“.

He also spoke about his tough childhood without close friends and struggling with dyslexia.

Cruise, 43, saw his father for the last time when he was in hospital dying of cancer, after a ten-year estrangement.

“He was a bully and a coward,” he told Parade magazine.

“He was the kind of person where if something goes wrong they kick you.

“It was a great lesson in my life – how he’d lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang.

“For me it was like, ’There’s something wrong with this guy. Don’t trust him. Be careful around him’. There’s that anxiety.”

Speaking of his final meeting with his father, Cruise said: “He was in the hospital dying of cancer, and he would only meet me on the basis that I didn’t ask him anything about the past.

“When I saw him in pain, I thought, ’Wow, what a lonely life.’ He was in his late 40s. It was sad.”

School, where he faced more bullies, was also difficult, Cruise explained.

“I had no really close friend,” he told the magazine.

“I was always the new kid with the wrong shoes, the wrong accent. I didn’t have a friend to share things with and confide in.”

And being diagnosed with dyslexia did not help matters.

“The school took me to a psychiatrist to get tested,” Cruise said.

“They said, ’Oh, he’s dyslexic.’ I’m labelled. It instantly put me into confusion. It was an absolute affront to my dignity.”

He added: “I remember thinking, I’ve got to figure this out. What’s normal? Am I normal? Who’s to say what’s normal? I didn’t understand what ’normal’ is. It still doesn’t make sense.”