Katie Holmes Has Safeguarded Her and Tom Cruise's Daughter Suri? Here's What She's Up to as She Turns 18

Katie Holmes has ensured the well-being of her and Tom Cruise's daughter, Suri. Here's a look at what she's up to as Suri turns 18.

Updated on Apr 17, 2024  |  01:44 PM IST |  59.4K
Katie Holmes Ensures Suri's Well-being: 18th Birthday Updates
Katie Holmes & Suri Cruise (PC: IMDb)

Suri Cruise was once the most well-known infant in America. When Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' child was born on April 18, 2006, the world went crazy because it was the first time the A-list baby was seen. She didn't, however, make her public debut until five months after her birth—on the Vanity Fair cover, cuddled up in the arms of her devoted parents, in glossy images captured by renowned celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

As she approaches her 18th birthday on Thursday, Holmes must decide whether to continue living the closely guarded life she had created for herself since surprising Cruise by filing for divorce or to pursue her childhood celebrity when there were websites dedicated to her style. The young woman with black hair grew up in Manhattan, mostly hidden from the public eye by her devoted and fiercely protective 45-year-old mother, who lives far away from her 60-year-old father's Church of Scientology.

As Page Six reported a year ago, Suri and her well-known father are not connected. An industry insider revealed this week that the "Mission: Impossible" star has not seen Suri since 2012. 

“Katie has safeguarded Suri and she’s a devoted mom. This is a girl who is a private citizen. She hasn’t lived her life in public,” the source said. In a 2023 interview with Glamour, Holmes said that Suri was so visible at an early age that she prefers "protecting" her from the limelight.

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She said “I’m very grateful to be a parent, to be her parent. She’s an incredible person. She’s my heart.” Suri's early existence was obviously quite different from her current one as the lone daughter of a devoted single parent. 


Tom Cruise's Journey as a Father: Love, Divorce, and Scientology Concerns

“My whole life I always wanted to be a father. I always said to myself that my children would be able to depend on me, and I would always be there for them and love them — that I’d never make a promise to my kids that I couldn’t keep. I’m not one of those people who believe you can spoil a child with too much love. You can never give a child too much love. There’s just no way,” Cruise gushed to VF back in 2006.

Following Suri's Vanity Fair appearance, he was delighted to parade her for the paparazzi, having already adopted two children from his marriage to Nicole Kidman: Bella, 31, and Connor, 29. In May 2005, Cruise publicized their romance by leaping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's sofa and yelling, "I'm in love!"

Suri was barely six years old when Holmes filed for divorce, despite their six-year marriage. She accomplished this with the help of her tenacious lawyer father, Martin Holmes, and a secret operation that required using burner phones. When the file was created in June 2012, Cruise was filming "Oblivion" in Iceland, and it took him completely by surprise. 

He and Suri were last seen together at Disney World in the summer of 2012. In a November 2013 court filing, the "Top Gun" star admitted in a deposition that Holmes had filed for divorce "to protect Suri from Scientology" as part of his $50 million lawsuit against two tabloid magazines. 

According to their divorce deal, Cruise, who is claimed to be worth $600 million, committed to paying Holmes $400,000 a year until Suri reached 18 and to cover future "medical, dental, insurance, education, college, and other extracurricular costs" even if they were unrelated. The focus of Suri's future concerns is Scientology. 

The TV actress "Dawson's Creek," Holmes, is rumored to have signed many non-disclosure agreements that forbid her from talking about her marriage to Cruise or her time spent in Scientology. Suri, however, is deemed of legal age by the state of New York when she reaches 18.

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That would provide her the opportunity to talk about her father, his beliefs, and their dispute. Page Six was informed by Tony Ortega, a longtime Scientology researcher, that " “Suri would have been too young to sign any agreement, but she will now be free to talk if she wants to and it’s going to be really interesting if she has something to say.”

ALSO READ: Katie Holmes Net Worth - How much is Katie Holmes worth in 2024?

Tom Cruise, Scientology, and Suri: Uncovering the Truth

When reached out to reps for Cruise, Holmes, and the Church of Scientology, Ortega said, “Part of why Katie left when she did when Suri was 6 was that Katie would have seen Isabella and Connor going through Scientology.”

Of course, Cruise is the most well-known member of Scientology and is considered to be among its most powerful figures—possibly surpassed only by the organization's founder, David Miscavige. Because of such authority, Miscavige and other high-ranking Scientologists may have taken actions against Holmes and her daughter, which Ortega and other ex-Scientologists are now questioning. 

When regular members of Scientology quit the organization, they are labeled as "suppressive persons (SP)," and those who stay are told to completely cut them off. Ortega said “We don’t know for sure if Katie was ever declared an SP. If you are a regular church member you could be told to disconnect from your wife and daughter, but because Tom is a celebrity — he’s the top celebrity — he gets to ignore all this stuff.”

He further added “Your average member would be kicked out, but David Miscavige can’t do that with Tom.” Renowned ex-Scientologists Mike Rinder and Jeff Augustine agreed with this statement.

Page Six reports that Augustine is married to Karen de la Carriere, a former high-ranking church officer who left in 2010, “The situation with Suri is a larger story about Scientology and the subject of how they make people no longer useful to them or threats to them non-persons. It’s like they cease to exist and that’s what happened to Suri.”

In August 2020, Leah Remini, one of the most well-known celebrities to leave Scientology and criticize it, told Page Six that she believed Cruise, who presently resides primarily in the UK, was delaying indoctrinating Suri until she was older. 

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Remini said, "I'm sure his master plan is to wait until Suri gets older so that he can lure her into Scientology and away from her mother." Remini was there at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle, where Cruise and Holmes tied the knot in November 2006.


Suri Cruise: A Rising Talent in the Entertainment Industry

While attending an upscale Manhattan day school, Suri has subtly entered her parents' entertainment industry. She can be heard singing "Blue Moon" during the opening credits of Holmes' 2022 film, "Alone Together." 

Holmes said “I always want the highest level of talent. So I asked her! She’s very, very talented. She said she would do it, and she recorded it. I let her do her thing.” In the Holmes-directed movie "Rare Objects," Suri also sang. This year, Holmes will make his Broadway comeback in a staging of "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. While she did have an affair with actor Jamie Foxx for six years, which she kept quiet until their split in August 2019, and a brief liaison with Nolita restaurateur Emilio Vitolo Jr. in 2021, she has not remarried.

While her daughter is currently getting ready for college, Holmes is cautious to withhold too much information about her, saying only that "she came out very strong—she's always had a strong personality." She is currently getting ready for her daughter to leave the nest, though. In the summer of 2017, she said to Town & Country, "You want them to stay with you forever, but they're these amazing beings, and you have to do everything you can to give them what they need— and then they're going to go."

“And that’s going to be very, very sad for me.” Regarding the future, former Scientology spokesperson Mike Rinder, who has not seen his two eldest children since quitting the organization, told Page Six, “Suri is not a Scientologist and never will be…she deserves love and sympathy.”

ALSO READ: Tom Cruise Net Worth, Assets, Investments, Career Highlights, and Personal Life

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