UPDATED! Katie Holmes Files For Divorce From The Tom

Posted: June 30th, 2012 | Author: Verity Penfold | Filed under: Cult of Celebrity, Favorite New Thought . . . | Tags: Divorce, Katie Holmes, Mission Impossible, Oprah Winfrey Show, Tom Cruise, TomKat | Comments Off

Reuters is reporting that Katie Holmes has filed for divorce from her superstar husband Tom Cruise, ending a six-year marriage that produced one daughter and captivated celebrity watchers worldwide.

Holmes filed papers in New York City on Thursday, citing irreconcilable differences and seeking sole custody of the couple’s six-year-old daughter Suri in a move that came “out of the blue” for the Mission Impossible actor, said one source with knowledge of the situation.

The source said Cruise is out of the country filming a movie in Iceland and the filing came as a surprise.

The actor’s spokeswoman issued a brief statement, saying: “Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy to work this out.” No further comment was made ::::

Los Angeles-based attorney Bert Fields, who has represented Cruise in other matters but is not handling the divorce, confirmed the filing but declined to give further details.

“Tom wants to be very private,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, People magazine quoted Holmes’ attorney Jonathan Wolfe as calling it “a personal and private matter for Katie and her family … Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.”

The couple’s marriage, which began at an elaborate, Italian castle wedding in November 2006, has been closely followed by the celebrity press ever since the pair, dubbed TomKat, began dating in 2005.

At the time, Holmes, now 33, was a rising star and Hollywood ingénue who found fame on TV’s Dawson’s Creek and earned her acting chops in independent films such as Pieces of April.

Cruise, 16 years her senior, was among Hollywood’s highest paid stars who enjoyed a string of box office blockbusters in action flicks ranging from 1986′s Top Gun to his Mission: Impossible movies that began in 1996 and continue today.

He proposed to Holmes atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris and famously went on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, jumped on her couch and shouted out his love for Holmes in front of a TV audience of millions.

Cruise, a practitioner of Scientology, was previously married to actress Mimi Rogers and actress Nicole Kidman, with whom he has two children.

Holmes’ marriage to Cruise was her first. Yesterday, June 29, 2012, it was announced that Holmes had filed for divorce after five years of marriage. This is Cruise’s third divorce and the first for Holmes.

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers on May 9, 1987; they divorced on February 4, 1990. Rogers is generally believed to have introduced Cruise to Scientology. Cruise met his second wife, Nicole Kidman, on the set of their film Days of Thunder. The couple married on December 24, 1990. He and Kidman adopted two children, Isabella Jane (born December 1992) and Connor Antony (born January 1995). They separated in February 2001 when Kidman was three months pregnant; she later miscarried.

Cruise was next romantically linked with Penélope Cruz, his co-star in Vanilla Sky. That relationship ended in 2004. In April 2005, Cruise began dating actress Katie Holmes.

On April 27 that year, Cruise and Holmes, dubbed “TomKat” by the media, made their first public appearance together in Rome. A month later, Cruise declared his love for Holmes on The Oprah Winfrey Show famously jumping up and down on Winfrey’s couch during the show. On October 6, 2005, Cruise and Holmes announced they were expecting a child, and their daughter, Suri, was born in April 2006.

On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in a Scientology ceremony attended by many Hollywood stars. The actors’ publicist said the couple had “officialized” their marriage in Los Angeles the day before the Italian ceremony. David Miscavige served as Cruise’s best man.

UPDATE! 10 July 2012: Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have reached a “private” divorce settlement less than two weeks after the actress announced their bombshell split.

The pair issued a joint statement pledging to act in the “best interests” of their six-year-old daughter Suri, and to respect each other’s “beliefs” in her upbringing – an apparent reference to Scientology.

The announcement heads off what some had expected could be acrimonious haggling over the divorce, amid reports Holmes was concerned about the role of the Church of Scientology in their daughter’s life.

“The case has been settled and the agreement has been signed. We are thrilled for Katie and her family and are excited to watch as she embarks on the next chapter of her life,” her lawyer Jonathan Wolfe said.

No details of the settlement terms were given, but Holmes and Cruise’s joint statement stressed their desire to protect their daughter.

“We are committed to working together as parents to accomplish what is in our daughter Suri’s best interests,” they said in a joint statement.

“We want to keep matters affecting our family private and express our respect for each other’s commitment to each of our respective beliefs and support each other’s roles as parents.”

Asked about the terms of the settlement, Cruise’s publicist Amanda Lundberg reiterated: “They are private.”

Holmes announced on June 29 that she was filing for divorce to end the star couple’s five-year-old marriage, apparently taking Cruise by surprise.

He said he was “deeply saddened” by the announcement.

Speculation over the cause of the split has focused on Holmes’ reported concern that Cruise wanted their daughter to be immersed more deeply in the Church of Scientology, of which he is a prominent member.

Holmes had been expected to face a family court judge on July 17 in New York, where she filed her divorce petition. It is unclear if that hearing will go ahead, after the settlement.

Lawyers for both Cruise – who celebrated his 50th birthday last Tuesday – and 33-year-old Holmes were thought to have been negotiating through the weekend to reach the deal.

“We thank Tom’s counsel for their professionalism and diligence that helped bring about this speedy resolution,” Mr Wolfe said in a statement.

Cruise’s lawyer Bert Fields also released a statement saying: “Tom is really pleased we got there and so am I.”

Paul Talbert, a family law attorney with New York-based firm Chemtob Moss Forman & Talbert, called the speed of negotiations and settlement – Holmes initially filed for divorce on June 28 – fast for such a high-profile couple with abundant assets.

“Cases with so many moving parts do not routinely resolve themselves in a matter of 10 days. We obviously have one or two extremely motivated people,” Mr Talbert said.

He added it was difficult to speculate accurately about settlement details, and media coverage about Cruise and Scientology likely played a role in the speedy finish.

“Nobody wins in a messy public battle, and you certainly have two concerned parents here that recognised Suri definitely loses if this is a public divorce,” Mr Talbert said.

Cruise, who rose to stardom in 1983′s Risky Business and became a major box office draw with 1986′s Top Gun, continues to thrill audiences. His most recent film, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, sold nearly $US700 million worth of tickets worldwide following its release in December 2011.

But he generated a storm of criticism in the mid-2000s during media interviews in which he attacked the use of prescription drugs to treat psychiatric conditions. His opposition to psychiatry was rooted in Scientology, considered a religion by backers and a cult by detractors.

On talk show host Oprah Winfrey’s program in 2005, he jumped on her couch declaring his love for Holmes, only to be pilloried in the press for his out-of-character display of affection.

Holmes, meanwhile, has appeared in several movies and TV shows including mini-series The Kennedys.

In an interview with Elle magazine for its upcoming August edition, Holmes indicated she wanted to refocus on work.

“He has been Tom Cruise for 30 years,” she told the magazine. “I know who I am and where I am and where I want to go, so I want to focus on that.”

Cruise has two adopted children with his second wife, Nicole Kidman, and had previously been married to actress Mimi Rogers.

The marriage to Cruise was the first for Holmes, who was previously engaged to actor Chris Klein.