According to her prenuptial agreement with Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes could be awarded up to $3 million for each year of marriage
According to TMZ, Katie Holmes is seeking primary custody of her daughter Suri and has requested “a suitable amount” of child support from her husband Tom Cruise in divorce papers filed on Thursday.
High-profile celebrity couple Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are divorcing after five years of marriage, People magazine has reported. It was a marriage that started in an Italian castle and endured through years of hit movies, controversial couch jumping and clashes over Scientology.
A representative for Cruise told People that Holmes filed the divorce, leaving Cruise “deeply saddened.”
Now, however, the couple must come to grips with the details of dissolving one of Hollywood’s most famous unions. Holmes, 33, should expect to receive a substantial settlement from her soon-to-be-former husband. According to the terms of their 2006 prenuptial agreement, the actress is entitled to about $15 million.
In the event of a divorce, the document states, Holmes would be awarded $3 million for each year that she and Cruise, 49, were married — up to a possible $33 million. She will also receive the couple’s home in Montecito, Calif., MSNBC reported in 2006. If their marriage had lasted more than 11 years, Holmes would have received half of Cruise’s reportedly $250 million fortune.
Their separation could lead to a legal battle over custody of their 6-year-old daughter Suri, although both sides have stated that Suri’s welfare is their highest concern.
Holmes’ parents originally wanted her to avoid marrying Cruise, a tipster told the Scoop magazine in 2006, but then changed their minds. “If she walks now, Tom will fight her for custody of [Suri], and Katie can’t outlast him in court,” an insider told the Scoop in 2006. “She knows she needs to marry him to get the money to fight him for custody, if it comes to that.”
If Holmes wins custody of their daughter, the child-support payments she’s entitled to could prove sizable. When model Linda Evangelista split with her French billionaire boyfriend earlier this year, a court awarded her $550,000 in annual child-support payments.