Hayley Atwell says past rumours about her dating her 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning' co-star Tom Cruise were both "a little dirty" and "invasive".

The 41-year-old actress - who is engaged to music producer Ned 'Wolfgang' Kelly- admitted she found the romance gossip "grubby" because she sees her castmate and the flick's director Christopher McQuarrie, 54, as family.

She told The Independent: "I would be like, ‘Ooh, there’s some weird rumors, and it feels base. It feels a little dirty.

"It feels grubby. It’s not what I’m about. Why are things being assumed or projected onto me about my relationship with my work colleague and boss?"

She added: "It’s involving people in my actual life, my personal life, who have to be on the receiving end of that.

"It becomes invasive."

Hayley has been friends with Tom since they met at a mutual friend's wedding and she recently said she finds it "disappointing" that they were persistently rumoured to be dating, though she acknowledged very little she's read about the 61-year-old actor has been true.

She told The Daily Telegraph: "[It's] part of the machine that’s beyond my control. It doesn’t surprise me but it’s disappointing."

Asked if they laugh off the claims, she added: "Yes, it doesn’t come into the set life in any way. The only thing that I read about him that was true was that he ate two curries while they were filming in Birmingham."