Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: Very Different Upbringings

For years, Cruise also carried around the shame of being diagnosed with dyslexia.

"The school took me to a psychiatrist to get tested," Cruise told the magazine. "They said, 'Oh, he's dyslexic.' I'm labelled. It instantly put me into confusion. It was an absolute affront to my dignity.

"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," he said.

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In contrast, Holmes' childhood seems downright sunny. The youngest of five siblings, Holmes had a Catholic upbringing in Toledo, Ohio, where she attended the all-girl Notre Dame Academy. She appeared in the school musicals "Hello, Dolly!" and "Damn Yankees" before being cast in Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm," followed by her breakout role in "Dawson's Creek."

And like so many girls her age, Holmes had posters of famous heartthrobs on her wall, including one of Tom Cruise. Months before she and Cruise started dating, she confessed to Seventeen magazine in October 2004, ''I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise.''

The rest, as they say, is history.