Cast your mind back to 2005. Side fringes were in fashion, the Chloe Paddington bag was hanging on the arm of every celebrity, your jeans were so tight you could barely sit. And over in showbiz land, Tom Cruise was jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey’s coach.

Yes, anyone over the age of 25 remembers the moment Cruise went from esteemed movie star to… ‘that guy that jumped on Oprah’s coach’. It was a month into his relationship with Katie Holmes, and like all of us relishing in the Honeymoon phase, the actor couldn’t contain his excitement at how in love he was.

Cruise was already in exceptionally high spirits walking on to the show, repeatedly jumping, kneeling on the floor and punching the air throughout the interview – if you can call it that, because Winfrey could barely get a sentence out before Cruise exclaimed some new giddy behaviour. ‘What has happened to you?’ Winfrey asked in awe. ‘I’m in love,’ Cruise declared. ‘Have you ever felt this way behaviour?’ Winfrey continued before Cruise jumped up onto her coach, repeating the stunt at the mere mention of Holmes name. ‘The boy is gone!’ Winfrey joked.

Cruise went on to propose to Holmes just one month later, proposing on top of the Eiffel Tower with a five-carat yellow diamond. Within a year, they were married and had their daughter Suri on the anniversary of their first date. It seemed as though their love story was written, but alas six years later they separated after reported differences in their beliefs about scientology – which Cruise is a longtime believer in.

Last year, it was reported that Suri had changed her name for her high school graduation, choosing to drop Cruise and go by her mother’s middle name ‘Noelle’ for the milestone. Now, Suri uses Noelle as her surname with Page Six reported that she ‘wants her own identity’.

While the moment Cruise jumped on Winfrey’s sofa is still an iconic moment in pop culture history, Cruise’s publicist at the time has recently revealed that the incident cost him his job.

Tim Menke, a veteran movie publicist at Paramount Pictures, made the admission during his acceptance speech for a Henri Bollinger Award at the ICG Publicists Awards in Los Angeles.

‘These awards solidified a special place in my heart in 2006 when, after a dozen years at Paramount, I was kicked to the curb in large part because, well, long story short of a couch on [The Oprah Winfrey Show],’ Menke said. ‘It was my booking, and it didn’t go very well. It violated the adage that all publicity is good publicity.’

Despite being let go as a senior publicist in 2005, Menke returned to Paramount Pictures in 2018 and remains there today. Menke’s reference to the scandalous moment reportedly attracted laughter from the audience, with some loudly responding with ‘Oohs’. He went on to say that ha landed a job at 20th Century Fox soon after and shouted out Paramount’s ‘visionary leader’ Liz West for bringing him back into the fold after 12 years away.

Menke went on to deliver a heartfelt speech about his 30-year career, essentially going on to prove that even in the most scandalous of setbacks, you can always make a stellar comeback! Cruise has not commented on Menke’s speech.

Winfrey, for her part, rarely speaks of the incident. The most reporters have gotten out of her since 2005 is when she interviewed with TV Guide in 2013, only speaking about the public reaction to the episode. ‘Certainly, I did not think that it would turn into the brouhaha that it did,’ Winfrey said. ‘He was in love. He was very happy about it. He was on a show. He knew me. He came to play.’

Cruise also doesn’t speak about the incident, nor his personal life in interviews. Shortly after the initial Oprah interview, he went back on the show to reflect on it. ‘It was a moment,’ he said. ‘It was something that I just felt that way. And it’s something, you know, that’s just how I felt.’

Given the intense attention the interview got, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Cruise is so private about his life now. How will Cruise feel about Menke sharing that it cost him his job? One can only imagine…