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Hayley Atwell Responds to Tom Cruise Dating Rumors, Says He Made Her ‘Feel Safe’ While Filming
Family vibes. Hayley Atwell responded to years-long dating rumors with Tom Cruise during a Saturday, July 8, interview with The Independent, comparing the A-list actor to an “uncle.”
“I would be like, ‘Ooh, there’s some weird rumors, and it feels base, it feels a little dirty, it feels grubby, it’s not what I’m about. Why are things being assumed or projected onto me about my relationship with my work colleague and boss?” she told the outlet at the time.
Rumors swirled that Hayley, 41, and Tom, 61, were romantically linked while filming Mission: Impossible 7 in 2020 and again after he gave her a kiss on the cheek on the red carpet at the movie’s red premiere in Dubai last month.
Haley deemed the dating rumors as “upsetting” and “invasive” because the gossip involved people in her “personal life” that were on the “receiving end” of the speculation.
That being said, Hayley revealed that she turned to Tom while their platonic relationship was being speculated as romance and he gave her advice that the Marvel actress lives by today.
“When I’ve talked to him about it, he’d be like, ‘You know exactly who you are. You know what you’re about. And that is the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter what people think of you if you are in integrity with yourself if you know what your value system is,’” she explained, noting that Tom made her “feel safe” on the set of Mission: Impossible. “I truly feel you could meet him and go, ‘He’s nice; he’s charming; he’s charismatic; he knows how to make people feel good about themselves. So that’s just a tactic for total manipulation because he’s probably just an egocentric.’ Or whatever bulls–t people want to make up about people.”
While coming to Tom’s defense, Hayley revealed that after “watching him,” she learned that the Top Gun actor “really works hard, he really cares, he’s really interested in people and wants to engage with them, and he believes in the power of cinema as much as he did when he was five years old.”
Although fans speculated that Tom and Hayley were in a romantic relationship ever since they filmed Mission: Impossible 7, the London native was actually dating Ned Wolfgang Kelly, whom she got engaged to in April.
As for Tom, he “has never given up on love,” a source exclusively told In Touch in May, following his viral meetup with Shakira at the Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The insider noted, “Being who he is, it’s hard to find someone who is genuinely interested in him as a person, not as a movie star.”
