Tom Cruise’s lawyer is putting to rest rumors that the Church of Scientology was at the table negotiating terms in the superstar actor’s whirlwind divorce from Katie Holmes, insisting that it was the couple and their team of lawyers who worked together to reach an amicable agreement.
Cruise lawyer Bert Fields, who flew to New York to negotiate the settlement that granted Holmes, 33, primary custody of their daughter, Suri, and Cruise, 50, generous visitation rights, told PEOPLE the actor’s religion played no role in the proceedings. “Somebody said the Scientologists were directing the negotiations, and that is absolute hogwash,” Fields said. “There was no Scientologist present, I wasn’t on the phone with Scientologists. Scientologists played no part of role in the negotiations between the lawyers.”
Instead, Fields said, Cruise and Holmes’ teams “dealt rationally with the issues, hashed them all out and over a few days worked something out that was to the satisfaction of both sides”—a settlement meted out quickly for the sake of 6-year-Suri. “Tom was always most interested in his child,” Fields added. “His concern was for Suri.”
Fields insisted that Cruise will have a meaningful relationship with Suri, though he refused to say when the father will see his daughter. Cruise is off filming Oblivion while Holmes is pulling mom duty in her newly-adopted New York City home, where she’s been photographed taking Suri to the zoo and art museums.
Katie Holmes filed for a divorce from Tom Cruise just a few weeks ago, reportedly taking great pains to set up a new life—an apartment, new bodyguards and publicity managers—before telling her husband of five years that she was leaving him.
