By Hindustan Times
Fairytale Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes announced on Friday they were calling it quits after five years of marriage, ending an unexpected love story dogged by tabloid rumors.
"Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is focusing on his three children," Amanda Lundberg, Cruise's representative, told AFP.
"Please allow them their privacy to work this out."
"This is a private and personal matter for Katie and her family," said Jonathan Wolfe, the attorney representing Holmes.
"Katie's primary concern remains, because it always has been, her daughter's best interest."
Cruise, who turns 50 on Tuesday, wed Holmes, 33, in a storybook Italian castle in November 2006 after declaring his love for the previous Dawson's Creek star live to tell the tale Oprah - famously hopping on a couch within the studio.
It was Holmes's first marriage and Cruise's third. They've a six-year-old daughter, Suri.
The "TomKat" split comes just 10 days after the "amicable" parting folks actor Johnny Depp and French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis, and can doubtless result in renewed chatter in regards to the pressures on Hollywood couples.
Holmes has admitted to having a teenage crush on Cruise, even saying she had publish a poster of the highest Gun star in her bedroom.
After a whirlwind courtship that culminated in a suggestion under the Eiffel Tower in June 2005, what followed resembled a fairytale - at first.
Fireworks lit up the night sky above the 15th-century Odescalchi castle near Rome when Cruise and Holmes tied the knot on November 18, 2006.
Glitterati from the worlds of cinema, sports and music were to be had on the sprawling estate perched above the lakeside town of Bracciano as Holmes offered her hand to the Mission Impossible star, who has three Oscar nominations.
Italian media reported that American Scientology leader David Miscavige officiated on the event, arguably probably the most high-profile Scientology wedding to date, in a ceremony that lasted not more than 15 minutes.
Reports on the time said that under the prenuptial agreement, Holmes - who converted to Scientology - would receive $3 million for each year of the wedding plus ownership of a California mansion in the event that they split.
But it is still seen how the stylish, dark-haired duo - often snapped at glittery events alongside soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria -- will handle the custody in their daughter, who was called one among Hollywood's most trendy youngsters.
According to the web site TMZ.com, Holmes wants sole custody.
Citing unnamed sources, the web site claims Holmes filed for divorce mainly over Cruise's ties to Scientology, "fearing that Tom would drag Suri deep into the church."
"We're told the couple were arguing over Suri - that she's now of the age where Scientology becomes an important a part of her life," it said.
Tabloids, shadowing the couple for the reason that get-go, have speculated for a while that the connection was at the rocks after the pair was not seen together for months. Cruise has also won two lawsuits alleging he's gay.
In an interview with Playboy magazine in May, Cruise said he can be spending his birthday shooting a movie in Iceland - without his significant other.
"My family, my wife, they understand. It's who I am," he said.
Addressing rumors about his private life, he added: "YOU SIMPLY need to keep going and keep in mind that. The opposite stuff? I hear it, I read it, I AM GETTING it. But life isn't an issue of seeking to prove anything to anybody."
Born in The big apple state in 1962, Cruise was raised by his mother and infrequently knew his father who left early on. That did not change his feelings about family.
"I always desired to be a father, a husband," he told Playboy.
Cruise, still one in every of Hollywood's most bankable stars as shown by recent box office smash Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, was married to Australian actress Nicole Kidman from 1990 to 2001. The couple had two adopted children, 19-year-old Isabella and 17-year-old Connor.
He was also married to American actress Mimi Rogers from 1987 to 1990 and had a three-year relationship with Spanish star Penelope Cruz after splitting up with Kidman.
Holmes, who was born and raised in Ohio, appeared in Batman Begins (2005) and starred alongside Adam Sandler within the critically panned 2011 romantic comedy Jack and Jill.
News of the divorce result in an avalanche of messages on Twitter, many sarcastic in nature.
"Mimi Rogers 1956 Nicole Kidman 1967 Katie Holmes 1978 - my supercomputer analysis says Tom Cruise's next wife was born in 1989," said one, signed HAL 9000.
