Tom Cruise denies abandoning

Tom Cruise denies abandoning daughter
on november 06, 2013 at 8:26 pm in home video
people
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Hollywood megastar Tom
Cruise has denied having “abandoned” his daughter
Suri following his divorce from Katie Holmes last
year, while acknowledging that he has seen less of
the seven-year-old.
In a statement filed in court this week, the US actor
said he had a “wonderful relationship” with his
daughter, who he said “has never indicated … that
she has ever felt abandoned by me.”
Tom with wife Katie Holmes and their daughter Suri
Cruise launched legal action last year against
Bauer, the publishers of US magazines Life and
Style and InTouch for $50 million over covers
claiming he had abandoned his daughter.
A July 2012 edition of Life and Style splashed the
headline “Suri in tears, abandoned by her dad,” over
a picture of the sobbing girl. Holmes and Cruise had
announced their split the month before after six
years of marriage, and Suri was living with her
mother.
In a two-page statement filed ahead of a new court
hearing later this month and published by
entertainment news website Radar Online, Cruise
said: “the assertion that I ‘abandoned’ Suri after my
divorce is patently false.
“I have in no way cut Suri out of my life — whether
physically, emotionally, financially or otherwise.
Even during the times when I was overseas and not
able to see Suri in person, we were (and continued
to be) extremely close.”
Cruise, a prominent member of the Church of
Scientology, said he was out of the country from
June until December last year shooting two back-
to-back movies, while Suri lived with her mother in
New York.
“As a result of the changed circumstances following
the divorce, we were not able to see each other as
often as we did prior to the divorce.”
But he said: “As my numerous emails with Suri’s
mother during this time period demonstrate, I was a
constant presence in Suri’s life during the time that
defendants false claim that I abandoned her.
“While I’m sure my daughter misses me when I’m
not with her (as I miss her), she is a very happy
child, and we have a wonderful relationship and
cheerful phone calls. She has never indicated, in
words or substance, that she has ever felt
abandoned by me.”
Holmes announced on June 28 last year that she
was filing for divorce to end her five-year marriage
to Cruise, who was reportedly taken completely by
surprise by the bombshell.
The couple — who wed in November 2006 after a
whirlwind romance and a proposal beneath the Eiffel
Tower in Paris — struck a divorce settlement less
than two weeks later.
A court hearing in the libel case is scheduled on
November 26, according to the statement filed this
week.