A woman forcibly kissed Tom Cruise at the Olympic closing ceremony. Now it has sparked a consent debate

Tom Cruise lit up the Paris Olympics closing ceremony as he descended into Stade de France from the roof for the official flag handover to Los Angeles for the 2028 event.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and LA mayor Karen Bass also starred in Sunday's ceremony following a "golden voyager" with acrobats and French musicians performing at the French stadium's main ceremony.

While Cruise was flooded with praise for his appearance, there was one moment that gained a lot of attention online.

Once the actor touched the ground after rappelling down the Stade de France, he greeted fans as he made his way through the stadium.

At one point, one fan, possibly an Olympian, was captured grabbing Cruise and giving him a peck, sparking a debate on X/Twitter.

"I saw that, couldn’t believe it," one wrote, while another penned: "Imagine if the roles were reversed."

"People should not ever do what she did to anyone, celebrity or otherwise. You don’t grab and kiss a person, especially a person you don’t even know in any way, and twice, like that. It’s very rude to force yourself onto them that way. Tom Cruise is so gracious," a third added.

"What happened to consent? Some weirdo woman just molested Tom Cruise at the Olympics closing," another wrote.

Once Cruise had made it through the crowd, he shook hands with Bass before taking the Olympic flag from her and hopping on a motorcycle to take it on a joyride out of the stadium.

A pre-recorded film showed the Hollywood star riding past classic Parisian landmarks like the Eiffel Tower before arriving at an airport.

After boarding the aircraft, Cruise could be seen skydiving out of the plane and later landing in America.

The star then trekked the flag up to the famous Hollywood sign before he passed it on to US cyclist Kate Courtney.

Cruise later shared a snap on Instagram with the caption: "Thank you, Paris. Now off to LA."

"The best part of the end of the Olympics," one fan wrote, while another added: "Tom Cruise just stole the show."

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.