Tom Cruise on Katie Holmes Divorce, 'Oblivion' Star Opens Up about Split for First Time: 'I Did Not Expect That, Life is a Challenge,' Actor able to Reflect

On June 29, 2012, actress Katie Holmes unexpectedly announced that she was filing for divorce from hubby Tom Cruise (just five days before the actor's 50th birthday). The couple split soon afterwards and the "Oblivion" star remained very hush-hush about his feelings surrounding the seperation... until now. In a recent Bunte magazine interview with German's TV network ProSieben, the Golden Globe winner reveals that the he "did not expect" Holmes to confront him with the divorce papers. Although the seperation intially came as a shock, it gave Cruise time to reflect and meet life's unexpected challenges head-on. Read on for more details!

While out promoting his upcoming science fiction thriller "Oblivion" (which also stars Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Melissa Leo, Zoë Bell, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), Cruise was once again questioned about last year's split from Holmes. But this time, the "Risky Business" star decided to finally break his silence on the personal subject:

"I did not expect that," Cruise said, revealing that he was surprised when his wife of five-years wanted a sudden divorce. Even so, Cruise admits that the breakup gave him "an incredible amount of time to reflect" in light of his monumental birthday. He also adds, "Life is a challenge. To be 50 and have experiences and think you have everything under control, and then it hits you - that's what life is... Life is tragicomic. You need a certain sense of humor."

Cruise and Holmes reached a divorce settlement on July 9, 2012 which gave Katie custody over their six-year-old daughter Suri - Tom received generous visitation rights.