Tom Cruise has given Dakota Fanning a pair of shoes for every birthday since the release of their smash hit 2005 film War of the Worlds - having formed a tight bond with the actress when she played the role of his daughter on-screen.
The now-30-year-old starlet made the revelation during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week, gushing about her tight-knit relationship with Tom, 61, who is famously estranged from his real-life daughter Suri Cruise.
While Suri, whose mother is actress Katie Holmes, recently celebrated her 18th birthday without her father, it seems Tom has had an enduring presence in Dakota's life, at least where her birthdays are concerned.
Tom and Dakota starred as father and daughter attempting to survive an apocalyptic alien invasion in the hit movie War of the Worlds, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the HG Wells novel of the same name.
While the picture was being filmed, Dakota turned 11, and Tom gave her the Motorola Razr cellphone she had been openly coveting.
Tom Cruise has given Dakota Fanning shoes for every birthday since the release of their 2005 film War of the Worlds, she revealed on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week
The Steven Spielberg movie starred Tom and Dakota as a father and daughter attempting to survive a catastrophic alien invasion of the planet Earth
The 30-year-old starlet gushed about her tight-knit relationship with Tom, 61, who is famously estranged from his real-life daughter Suri Cruise (seen together in 2011)
Then the pair began doing media appearances for the movie, and Dakota started indulging in her budding love of footwear.
'From that birthday on, he always sends me shoes,' Dakota, who turned 30 this February, dished this week on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
'I turned 11 on War of the Worlds, when we worked together, and he gave me my first cellphone for that birthday. It was a Motorola Razr,' she recalled.
'I wanted a Razr so bad and I must have been talking about it a lot, because that's what he got me,' she said with a laugh. 'It was so - such a great memory.'
Dakota then explained: 'He always sends me the same thing every year, after the cellphone. I... loved shoes when I was little, and I started to be able to fit into really small adult shoes when I was on the War of the Worlds press tour so I was very excited about them. And so from that birthday on he always sends me shoes.'
The actress's sweet story about her on-screen father comes amid his ongoing estrangement from his own daughter, Suri, with sources revealing to DailyMail.com in April that the actor has no part in the teenager's life.
Ahead of her 18th birthday, an insider lifted the lid on the ongoing rift between the pair, revealing: 'Suri will not have any contact with her father, despite being 18, and even if he called, she would not answer. He does not exist to Katie or Suri, and his daughter does not want to rely on him for anything.'
They continued: 'She feels that she has one parent and that is her mother.'
While the picture was being filmed, Dakota turned 11, and Tom gave her the Motorola Razr cellphone she had been openly coveting; pictured in the movie
Then the pair began doing media appearances for the movie, and Dakota started indulging in her budding love of footwear; pictured at the MTV Movie Awards in June 2005
Suri's milestone birthday officially severed all remaining ties with Tom on paper; when she turns 18, the Top Gun star was no longer required to pay child support to Katie, a sum that reportedly amounted to a hefty $400,000 a year.
At the time of Tom and Katie's split, sources close to Katie had reported that she and her ex were keen on co-parenting Suri, but in recent years Tom has not been seen in public with his daughter.
In fact, the last photo of the actor out and about with Suri was on a trip to Disneyland in 2012, the year his divorce from Katie was finalized.
As Tom remains a powerful figure in the Church of Scientology, former followers of the faith have suggested it has restricted Tom from seeing Suri.
In 2019, Samantha Domingo, who stopped following Scientology in 2004, claimed Tom was 'not allowed' to have a relationship with his daughter because she is not a Scientologist.
The author, who has penned a book about her time in the church, told US Weekly that, due to the Church's belief in reincarnation, they will not view Suri as Tom's daughter. Instead, she claimed they saw Suri as 'a spiritual being in his daughter's body.'
However, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology dismissed the claims as 'fiction.'
Meanwhile Dakota has been incredibly open about her desire to become a mom, admitting in a candid April interview that parenthood is the biggest priority in her life.
'Having kids is probably more important to me than anything, even being an actor,' she told PORTER
'If somebody said I had to choose, I would choose having kids. I’m one of those people who has always felt that pull.'
At the time of Tom and Katie's split, sources had reported that she and her ex were keen on co-parenting Suri but the actor has not seen his daughter in years (seen together in 2006)
'From that birthday on, he always sends me shoes,' Dakota, who turned 30 this February, dished this week on The Kelly Clarkson Show; Tom is pictured last year
The decision was all the more striking because, as she admitted: 'Being an actor is a huge part of my identity. I don’t really know who I would be without it.'
In spite of her dedication to her job, she explained that 'I also have a desire to set up my life and career so that I always have a choice.'
When she does eventually have children, she said: 'I don't know how I’ll feel when that time in my life comes – and how much I’ll want to work. But, because I don’t have that at the moment, I’m trying to take advantage of the adventures now.'
She added: 'I’m trying to push myself to keep saying yes to things that make me uncomfortable, to keep going to places for long periods of time that maybe I’m scared to do because – God willing – one day, it won’t be as easy.'
Dakota has been careful about keeping her love life out of the public eye, but about a half-decade ago she was known to be dating one Henry Frye.
Elsewhere in her new interview, she revealed how her mindset has evolved in a positive light ever since she reached her latest birthday.
'I wouldn't say I’m not a happy person, but I do think the late twenties f*** with you,' said the actress, whose little sister Elle Fanning has also become a star.
'I feel happier and more conscious of what I have, rather than what I don’t have. I know who I am, and the people who know me know who I am, and that’s really all that matters,' explained the I Am Sam star. 'But there is something about saying that at 30 that feels different to saying it at 28.'
