Cher insists her brief relationship with Tom Cruise could have gone a lot further, admitting she was "crazy" about him.

The Believe hitmaker dated the star 25 years ago, when she was 36 and at the height of her fame and Cruise was a 20-year-old up-and-coming actor.

They split in 1986 when Cruise was forced to move from Los Angeles to Chicago, Illinois after landing a role in the Martin Scorsese film The Color Of Money. He went on to marry his first wife Mimi Rogers a year later, they divorced in 1990.

And Cher is convinced that despite the 16-year age gap, the couple could have become serious if their hectic work schedules hadn't driven them apart.

She tells U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey, "He was shy. 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 recognised he got all her attention.

"It could have been a great big romance because I was crazy for him."

Will Tom be revealing his Cher affair to Oprah?