'Cruise wanted Kidman wiretapped'

28 January 2015 - 09:14 By ©The Daily Telegraph
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Nicole Kidman. File photo.
Nicole Kidman. File photo.
Image: Bang Showbiz

Church of Scientology leaders ordered the wiretapping of Nicole Kidman's phones during her marriage to Tom Cruise as part of a campaign to break up the couple, according to a new documentary.

Marty Rathbun, formerly the religion's second highest-ranking official, told film-maker Alex Gibney that his role was to "facilitate the break-up" for church leader David Miscavige.

The church said the "accusations made in the film" were "entirely false".

Cruise, the most outspoken Hollywood Scientologist, drifted away from the church during his marriage to Kidman, according to former insiders quoted in Going Clear, based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Wright.

The actress, who was raised a Roman Catholic, was already listed as a "potential trouble source" by the church because her father was a prominent psychiatrist, a profession towards which Scientology has a deep hostility.

Miscavige was reportedly alarmed about Cruise when he spent a year in Britain with Kidman in the late 1990s filming Eyes Wide Shut and did not return calls.

Church leaders launched an aggressive campaign to split the couple.

"I was to facilitate the break-up," said Rathbun, a former top Miscavige aide.

He said Cruise also shared concerns with him about Kidman during a church "auditing session" and suggested her phones could be tapped.

He said Miscavige authorised the wiretapping, but it is unclear whether any information was ever collected.

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