Truth behind Tom Cruise’s ‘tight’ relationship with rarely-spotted son Connor, reveals ALISON BOSHOFF, and the secret meaning behind his tattoo that shows why he’s about to become the ‘golden boy of Scientology’

His 18-year-old daughter Suri, whom he hasn’t seen since she was six, may have recently dropped his last name, but Tom Cruise clearly still has a close bond with his son.

The star was photographed boarding a helicopter in London with Connor, who he and ex-wife Nicole Kidman adopted in 1995, two years after they adopted daughter Isabella.

Father and son are thought to have gone to Glastonbury, partying with Cruise’s best friend, writer Chris McQuarrie, and his Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg. They were seen singing together in the VIP area before Coldplay’s set on Saturday night.

Not that father and son’s musical tastes always coincide. When Connor was a party DJ, he rarely played pop, which may explain his absence from last week’s Taylor Swift show at Wembley, which Tom attended.

Instead, the day after the Glastonbury trip, Connor was spotted playing Kings of Leon at BST Hyde Park with a woman, believed to be Amanda Lundberg, Tom Cruise’s PR officer.

Connor was spotted enjoying Kings of Leon at BST Hyde Park with a woman, believed to be Tom Cruise’s PR Amanda Lundberg

Although Cruise and Connor aren’t often photographed together, they are regulars at sporting events, particularly basketball. People who know Cruise say their bond is “close,” not least because Connor, like his father, is devoted to the religious movement Scientology.

Connor even has “1938” tattooed on his arm, a reference to the date of the first Scientology writings by founder L. Ron Hubbard. They live close to each other in Clearwater, Florida (the global headquarters of Scientology). Connor has also spent Christmas with his father, Tom’s sisters Cass, Lee Ann and Marian and their children at Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, West Sussex, the home of the religion in the UK.

And it’s believed Connor stayed at Saint Hill for much of the lockdown, allowing him to see his father in the UK, where he was making Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, when Covid allowed.

Scientology watchers now believe Connor and his adoptive sister Bella, 31, may be moving to the luxury Skyview building in Clearwater, where their father has owned the penthouse, complete with a car elevator, since 2021.

Their three aunts and their husbands also live in the building, and it appears there are apartments reserved for Bella and her husband, and for Connor.

Although Bella works in London as an auditor for Scientology and lives in Croydon with her husband Max Parker, it wouldn’t be a big step for Connor, who already lives in a nearby Scientology complex and is often seen tearing around Clearwater in his bright yellow muscle car.

Nicole Kidman, Connor, Isabella and Tom Cruise in Sydney, Australia, in 1996

His passion is deep-sea fishing — in 2016 Cruise bought him a £400,000 boat — and he works for a company that organises fishing expeditions. Connor is also a would-be food influencer and has an Instagram account, Connor’s Meat Shack.

He travels often to be with his father; last year, they were both photographed in New York. They were also seen with Bella after a hockey game in Tampa, Florida.

Why are the two eldest children so close to Tom — and Suri so distant? The main reason is that Suri, a high school graduate, is being raised single-handedly by her mother, Katie Holmes. The actress was married to Cruise from 2006 to 2012.

While Bella and Connor are raised by Tom alone, Kidman has not been photographed with her adopted children since 2007.

Isabella Jane Cruise was born in December 1992. Her biological mother was a married Scientologist and mother of two, who apparently felt she could not afford to raise a third child. During her pregnancy, the Church of Scientology set her up with Cruise, then 30, and his young wife Kidman, then 25. They were married for two years.

In 1995, their family was complete when they adopted Connor, when he was one month old.

After the Hollywood power couple split in 2001, Kidman and Cruise shared custody of the children. But by 2005, Isabella and Connor were living with their father full-time, in a mansion in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles run by Cruise’s sister Cass, a devout Scientologist. She also homeschooled them.

Nicole apparently sees them very little. Neither Connor nor Bella attended her 50th birthday party, nor her father Antony’s funeral in 2014. Kidman was raised Catholic, never converted to Scientology, and reportedly did not want Bella and Connor to be raised in the church.

In 2018, she told Who magazine: “They’re adults. They can make their own decisions. They’ve chosen to be Scientologists and as a mother it’s my job to love them.”

Bella and Connor attended Scientology balls, and Bella married IT consultant Parker. Cruise paid for the wedding in 2015 at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

As for Connor, in 2019 it was reported that he was set to marry leading second-generation Scientologist Silvia Zanchi. Originally from Bergamo, Italy, she is described as a “Scientology Princess” and is said to have completed preparations to ascend through the higher “OT levels” last year.

This acronym stands for Operating Thetan and refers to the immortal soul of the Thetan, which Scientologists believe represents the source of all life.

Silvia and Connor were seen at the same table at a Scientology wedding in 2018 and were reported to have been to Disney World in Orlando with Cruise in 2019, but whether they are married remains a mystery. They haven’t been seen together in public in years and aren’t on each other’s social media. Connor isn’t wearing a wedding ring.

What’s in store for Connor? Ex-Scientologist Katrina Reyes predicts he’ll take on a more prominent role: “He’ll be the golden boy of Scientology.”

This will undoubtedly mean his bond with Tom will become even stronger, while the reportedly looser ties with Kidman – and perhaps Suri as well – are unlikely to change anytime soon.