BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Before Mimi, before Nicole and certainly before Katie, Tom Cruise and Cher were an item, as the pop diva explains in an interview to air in May on the "Oprah Winfrey Show." "I was crazy about (Tom)," the 61-year-old said in an excerpt of the interview published in the Daily Mail. The two met in the mid-'80s and dated for several months. Had it not come to an end due to the demands of their film careers, Cher claimed, "It could have been a great big romance because I was crazy for him."

During her time with the then 23-year-old Cruise, Cher discovered his awkward side.

Tom Cruise presents the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 14th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles Jan. 27, 2008.

"He was shy," she said. "He said he felt like such a boob in school and nobody talked to him. We went on a date once for dinner in a New York restaurant and the waitress was from his old school. He told me she never talked to him back in school, but now he was recognized, he got all her attention."

Now single and with her Tommy days decades behind her, Cher told Oprah, "Dating is a strange thing. It's not every man who can be comfortable with me. Being Cher is a hard thing and difficult for him to hold his place."