Strolling through New York with her mother, both dressed casually in denim and boots, smiling Suri Cruise looked like any other fresh-faced teenager enjoying quality time with her mother Katie Holmes.
Despited her daughter being featured singing on the soundtracks of some of her films, ‘overprotective’ Katie has shielded her only child from the limelight to enjoy a relatively normal upbringing. But it could have all been a very different picture if Katie’s seven-year marriage to Tom Cruise had stood the test of time.
The couple were married for six years after tying the knot in a Scientologist ceremony in Italy in 2006. However, as the marriage went on, sources close to Katie suggested she felt increasingly intimidated by the church, in which Tom remains a powerful figure today.
Now, neither mother nor daughter are said to have contact with Tom Cruise, and a source revealed last year that the Top Gun star has ‘no part’ in his daughter’s life.
Suri’s focus is on preparing for higher education and she’s said to be thinking of pursuing a career in fashion. A source told Dailymail com: ‘Suri is applying to schools all over the place. [Katie] really does want her to stay in New York so they can be close to each other.
‘Katie takes great pride in her but is also extremely overprotective.’ The insider added Katie was ‘overwhelmed’ by the idea of her daughter going to college and Suri is said to be ‘leaning towards’ fashion school.
They revealed that Tom does ‘not have a part in [Suri’s] life’ – after it was previously revealed that the pair have not seen each other in years. When the couple split in 2012, it was reported that Katie had chosen to end the couple’s marriage over fears about raising her daughter as a Scientologist – a religion that Tom is incredibly dedicated to.
Her decision to quit the religion, as well as the marriage, caused a major rift between the former spouses, which has seen Tom and Suri’s relationship become increasingly distant over the years.
MailOnline revealed in 2016 that Katie feared she would lose Suri to Scientology, after seeing how Tom’s first wife Nicole Kidman became distanced from the children she adopted with him, Bella and Connor, when they remained within the church after she left.
It was reported that Katie’s final straw came when members of the Church of Scientology moved into the couple’s home. Ron Miscavige, the father of Scientology leader David, who himself renounced the religion, told DailyMail.com that there is a ‘toxic’ policy of ‘disconnection’ operating within the church – which is something Katie feared would be implemented to keep her away from her daughter.
Speaking to the website in 2016, five years before he passed away, Ron (who was estranged from David) explained that the disconnection policy sees Scientologists cut off contact with any family member who leaves the church. It happened to Ron, not only with son David, but also with his two daughters, Denise and Lori.
He claimed members of the church’s staff, known as Sea Org, moved in with Cruise and Holmes, to make sure the organization’s most valuable celebrity was being properly taken care of. ‘That didn’t sit so well with Katie, of course, and it hurt the marriage,’ he said. ‘She and Tom had big differences about the way life should be lived.’