Ex-Scientology Official Claims Tom Cruise Had Nicole Kidman’s Phone Tapped

Tom Cruise had Nicole Kidman’s phone tapped while the couple were married, claims a former top official of the Church of Scientology. The onetime aide alleges wiretapping was just one tactic used by church head David Miscavige in attempt to end the marriage.

Mark “Marty” Rathbun makes his allegations against Cruise and Miscavige in Alex Gibney’s new HBO documentary Going Clear: Scientology & The Prison of Belief, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival Sunday.

According to The Daily Caller, Mark Rathbun, who left the church in 2004 after 20 years, was once the second highest-ranking member in the church and a key aide to Scientology Chairman David Miscavige. The onetime official claims the church head was skeptical of Nicole Kidman because her father, Dr. Antony Kidman, who passed away last year, was a psychologist in Australia. This, according to church doctrine, made her a Potential Trouble Source (PTS) as the Church of Scientology is “vehemently opposed to psychology and psychiatry.”

Miscavige, according to the former official, wanted Tom Cruise to become a more enthusiastic supporter of Scientology, something he felt could not happen unless Nicole was out of the picture. The church head became particularly worried about Cruise’s dedication to Scientology in the 1990s when he and Kidman spent a year in England working on Eyes Wide Shut. Marty Rathbun, according to the New York Post, claims Cruise, too, became concerned about his wife and this is when the actor allegedly suggested the church hire a private investigator to tap her phone. Rathbun ordered the private investigator to tap the actress’s phone after, he claims, Miscavige then charged him with splitting the couple up.

“Rathbun alleges in the film that the Church of Scientology then waged an aggressive campaign to get Cruise to dump Kidman, including having a private investigator wiretap her phone—at Cruise’s apparent suggestion, according to Rathbun—and sending the tapes to Miscavige.”

Mark Rathbun, according to The Daily Caller, also claims in the documentary that the church “re-educated” the couple’s children, Connor and Isabella, to give Tom Cruise an edge when he and Nicole Kidman split.

The Church of Scientology has issued a statement blasting the documentary creators and denying the allegations.

“The Church has documented evidence that those featured in Gibney’s film regurgitating their stale, discredited allegations are admitted perjurers, admitted liars and professional anti-Scientologists whose living depends on the filing of false claims. All have been gone so long from the Church they know nothing of it today. Yet Gibney and HBO stonewalled more than a dozen requests by the Church to offer relevant information about them, with more than 25 individuals with firsthand information eager to speak.”

[Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore]