The Exclusive Interview

Tom on the Paparazzi

Oprah: I don't think that America understands what it's like to be hunted like a dog. It's really like being hunted like a dog.

Tom: Yeah, and it's something I've lived with for so long. And you don't know until you're inside of it.

Oprah: But it's accelerated, has it not?

Tom: It used to be, like, just in Europe. But even when I started out with Risky Business and Top Gun came out, there was the paparazzi. You knew them, and I could go up to them and say, "Give me a break tonight. I'll give you the shots tomorrow."

...

Oprah: You have seen how—we both have seen how—the ability to spin and how once something happens it can just sort of be taken in context, out of context, and spiral into something unimaginable, unimaginable. ... Are you surprised by that?

Tom: Sometimes I am, actually. ... Twelve hours after Kate tested [positive for her] pregnancy test, we went [to the doctor] in the middle of the night. ... Someone leaked it. ... Kate and I looked at each other and went, "Man, I thought I was good setting this up."

Oprah: Cause what? You went in the middle of the night to get the pregnancy test?

Tom: We went in the middle of the night. Kate and I ... we're very excited. It's such a private moment. ... And we sat down, we thought, "All right, now what are we going to do?"

Oprah: Cause you know it's going to be a zoo. You already know that.

Tom: ... My life was already a zoo. Then Kate came in, and it was a real zoo. And then, now she's pregnant, and it was like, it was off the charts. ... We sat down and talked about it. ... And there is enough stress just, like, how's the pregnancy going? And so, so we bought a sonogram machine. We had the doctor coming and doing this. Someone found out that we—

Oprah: You bought the sonogram machine because you wanted the doctor to come here?

Tom: Yeah, to come to the house. ... People found out that we had a sonogram machine. Then I was asked about it, and I wasn't about to tell people I was sneaking the doctor into the property, and you are not going to find out what hospital and where, and that's how we were able to do it. ... You know, and when you're having a baby, you just want it to be safe and easy as possible.