Tom Cruise says his father was abusive and that school, where he faced other bullies, was difficult, in an upcoming issue of Parade magazine.
"He was a bully and a coward," the 43-year-old actor says of his father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III. "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!"
Cruise has two children, Connor, 11, and Isabella, 13, from his marriage to Nicole Kidman, and his fiancee, Katie Holmes, is in the final stages of her pregnancy.