Tom Cruise continues to be estranged from his 16-year-old daughter, Suri, after admitting Scientology drove a wedge between them. Photo / Getty Images
Tom Cruise continues to be estranged from his 16-year-old daughter, Suri, after admitting Scientology drove a wedge between them. Photo / Getty Images
This article was one of Herald Entertainment’s best-read stories of 2023.
Tom Cruise remains estranged from his daughter, Suri Cruise, according to Page Six.
An insider told the media outlet that the Top Gun star has not seen his 17-year-old girl in an extremely long time and is not an active part of her life.
Cruise’s representatives didn’t immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Cruise and then-girlfriend Katie Holmes welcomed daughter Suri in April 2006. However, the couple’s high-profile split in 2011 drove a wedge between Cruise and his daughter.
The Mission Impossible star revealed in records from his 2012 defamation case against Bauer Media that he had not had contact with Suri for three months after he and Holmes ended their relationship.
“Listen, when there is a divorce, things change,” he confessed to lawyers in 2013. “It’s not an ideal scene. It’s not an ideal situation.”
During the US$50 million ($80m) suit deposition, Cruise revealed that his links with Scientology had played a big part in his separation from his daughter.
When questioned if Holmes had left the actor “in part to protect Suri from Scientology”, Tom replied, “That was one of the assertions, yes”.
The controversial church was, again, criticised for keeping Cruise and his daughter apart in 2016. According to the rules of Scientology, members of the church are not allowed to associate with non-believers.
Since neither Cruise’s ex nor the daughter he shares with her were Scientologists, the actor allegedly could not have a relationship with either of them.
“This is his loss, his issue, his problem,” an insider told Page Six at the time. “He must be really brainwashed.”
Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise's high profile split in 2011 drove a wedge between Cruise and his daughter. Photo / WireImage
Leah Remini, a former Scientologist, revealed to the Post in 2020 that Scientology considers Holmes a “suppressive person”, which is an “enemy” in the faith. This means that Cruise believes he “can’t be connected to Suri”.
Since leaving the church, Remini has been publicly fighting to expose the alleged wrongdoings within the religion. She speculated about Tom, “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”.
“It’s very important that I’m present and she has a stable, innocent childhood. I feel so blessed to do what I do, but there’s nothing in the world better than watching your child succeed.”
Holmes’ representative did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
This article was originally published on March 22, 2023.
