14 DAY TRIAL // The other day brought confirmation that, despite all signs pointing to the contrary, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have settled their divorce just 11 days after she filed the papers, blindsiding him. An explanation for that could be found in his connection to the Church of Scientology.
Scientology has often been mentioned in the same sentence as Cruise's name but never as often as it was in the days after Katie dropped the divorce bomb.
As the media started to speculate fervently on the “real” cause of the divorce and how that could be only the Church of Scientology with its (allegedly) weird and (allegedly) harmful practices, Cruise was pressured to back down in the divorce and custody fight, an ex-Scientologist explains for Radar Online.
In other words, though determined to fight tooth and nail for custody of his 6-year-old daughter with Katie, Suri (and had even hired powerful attorneys to help him do just that), Tom might have agreed to settle because he was pressured into it.
“Marty Rathbun, Tom Cruise's former auditor with the Church of Scientology, tells Radar Online exclusively that the Mission Impossible star chose his religion over his 6-year-old daughter, Suri, with Katie Holmes,” Radar writes.
“Yes, I think that Tom Cruise chose his religion over his daughter Suri, and I also think that (Church leader) David Miscavige pressured Cruise to settle the divorce quickly,” Rathbun says for the celebrity publication.
Miscavige has been one of Tom's closest friends for years and his best man at his wedding, so chances are his word would have weighed considerably in the balance, tipping it in favor of a quick settlement, even if that meant for Tom losing custody of Suri.
As we also reported yesterday, in the settlement, Katie gets full custody of their daughter in New York, with Tom being awarded “generous” visitation rights.
At the same time, Miscavige is somewhat of a controversial figure, being known for his willingness to go to extremes to keep negative attention off himself and Scientology.
Rathbun too has offered no reasons to doubt his many stories on the cult, which he left in 2004.
“Rathbun conducted confession sessions, known as audits, with Cruise from 2001-2004, at which time he left the church. He has since become an outspoken critic of the organization, but has always declined to divulge specifics from those sessions with the Rock of Ages star,” Radar writes.