Tom Cruise: I didn't see Suri for 110 days; Scientology made Katie Holmes flee
In a stunning Sept. 9 deposition, Cruise confessed that Holmes dumped him to spare their daughter, Suri, now 7, from the sect, and also admitted that he only saw his daughter 10 times between the middle of June and Thanksgiving. The admission was sparked by a $50 million lawsuit accusing Life & Style and In Touch magazines of defaming him in 2012 stories claiming he'd 'abandoned' Suri
New York Daily News/November 7, 2013
By Bill Hutchinson
Tom Cruise has admitted in an explosive court deposition that actress Katie Holmes fled their marriage to protect their daughter from Scientology.
Cruise confessed that Holmes dumped him to spare their now 7-year-old daughter, Suri, from the celebrity-centric religion, according to the deposition, obtained by RadarOnline.
The “Mission: Impossible” star’s stunning deposition was sparked by his $50 million lawsuit accusing Life & Style and In Touch magazines of defaming him in cover stories in 2012 claiming he had “abandoned” his daughter.
In the Sept. 9 faceoff with lawyers of the magazines’ parent company, Bauer Media, Cruise admitted he did not see his daughter for 110 days following his split with Holmes, RadarOnline reported.
He said he only saw his child 10 times between the middle of June until Thanksgiving.
But he said he would often call his daughter and tell her stories over the phone.
“You have to work at it,” Cruise snapped back at the accusations of being a bad parent.
But the lawyer, Elizabeth McNamara, shot back, “It really doesn’t substitute for being able to be there does it?”
Cruise admitted, “No, it doesn’t."
“As I said, I’ve gotten pretty good at communicating and I also find that, you know, Suri, you know, is a very happy child and confident and has a good sense of herself.”
Cruise, 51, also lashed out when asked if his religion played a role in breaking up his five-year marriage.
“Listen, I find that question offensive,” Cruise exploded, according to a 36-page deposition transcript. “I find it, those statements offensive. Like with any relationship, there are many different levels to it. You know, I, I find it very offensive. There is no need to protect my daughter from my religion.”
But when pressed to answer the question, Cruise reluctantly revealed what many have speculated since the couple’s sudden split in 2012.
“And Ms. Holmes has never indicated in any way that was one of the reasons she left you? ... To protect Suri from Scientology?” the Bauer attorney asked.
Finally, Cruise admitted, “Did she say that? That was one of the assertions, yes.”
In a followup question, the magazines’ attorney asked, “Is Suri currently practicing Scientology?”
Cruise answered, “No.”
The magazine’s lawyers grilled Cruise about Scientology rules that consider a person who publicly renounces the religion as a “suppressive person” and a castout by other Scientologists.
“That is a distortion and a simplification of the matter,” Cruise snapped. “I don’t want to just give an oversimplification of religious doctrine.”
But when confronted with Scientology’s definition of a “suppressed person” taken form the organization’s website, Cruise admitted that it was an apt description.
Cruise and Holmes’ divorce was finalized on June 29, ending what had initially appeared to be a fairy-tale union.
“I didn’t expect it,” Cruise told the German TV network ProSieben in April.
“To be 50 and to have experiences and to think you have a grip on everything, and then it hits you — this is it, what life can do to you,” he said. “Life is a tragicomedy. You need to have a sense of humor.”
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