Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes divorce may center around Scientology

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes pose on their wedding day. Holmes filed for divorce late Thursday in New York. Photo via Tom Cruise Public Figure Facebook Page.

It was an iconic moment in pop culture history: In 2005 Tom Cruise appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show and loudly proclaimed his affection for rumored love Katie Holmes by jumping on the talk show queen’s couch. Tom wasn’t the only one declaring his undying love. Katie got in on the shenanigans herself.

“I’ve always said it was my dream to marry Tom Cruise. Sometimes dreams do come true,” she said to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2005.

In modern-day fairy tales, dreams can also fall apart, as evidenced by Holmes’s divorce filing late Thursday in the state of New York. According to TMZ, Holmes filed in New York because the state would be more likely than California to give her sole physical custody of hers and Cruise’s 6-year-old daughter Suri. Having sole physical custody would mean that she could make all the decisions about Suri’s health and well-being. In addition, if the divorce were done in New York, the records would be sealed. The couple own an apartment there that originally belonged to Tom but he deeded to Katie last August for tax reasons. The actual deed for the apartment doesn’t list Katie’s name, but it does list a trust that’s supposed to benefit Katie. This is the apartment she’s using to establish residency, and if she pulls it off, says TMZ, the taxes will be much higher in New York than they would in California. On the basis of higher taxes and custody of Suri, Tom is attempting to move the divorce proceedings to California.

For his part, Tom said he was blindsided by the divorce. This will be his third, and, ironically, according to CBS News, all three marriages ended when his wives turned 33. Initial reports from various media outlets said the divorce filing came because Holmes wanted to get out from under the shadow of her more famous husband. Recently, he’s had great success with Rock of Ages and Mission Impossible 3: Ghost Protocol. Holmes didn’t appear with her husband at any of his Rock of Ages premiers, instead preferring to either stay home or attend an ice skating event in China.

The day after Katie filed, however, new reports are surfacing that Scientology is the culprit that killed TomKat’s marriage. With Suri’s increasing age, she’s about to become susceptible to some of Scientology’s early rituals. According to the NY Daily News, as the years progressed, Katie feared more and more that Tom would drag their daughter into his controversial religion. It wasn’t long after his famous couch-jumping incident that strange videos of the star touting the benefits of Scientology were leaked. They went viral on the web, and very few people took them seriously.

Veteran Divorce Attorney Raoul Felder told NY Daily News that if the divorce were to go on in New York, a judge would likely look askance at Scientology, unlike in California, where the religion is more widely practiced.

What Suri’s in For (if her dad keeps her in the Scientology faith)

• Auditing – A type of counseling where children are discuss painful memories while connected to an “e-meter”.
• Purification Rundown – Regime of vitamins and staying in a sauna for hours on end to cleanse the body of toxins.
• The Sea Org – This organization recruits children and asks them to serve for 1 billion years, because Scientologists expect to live more than one life, so they will come back and serve in the next life, also.

There are no real guidelines to a Scientology divorce, as the religion believes couples should focus on counseling to work out their difference, although many of the religion’s most famous members, including Founder L. Ron Hubbard, who ABC News said was married three times, have been married more than once.

The split was a shock to most of the world, though there had been talk of trouble in their marriage. They were both spotted wearing their wedding rings just this week, according to the NY Daily News and Cruise told Playboy in June that his wife was an extraordinary person.

Both parties have issued statements.

This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,” Holmes’ publicist said in a statement. “Katie’s primary concern remains, as it has always been, her daughter’s best interest.”

“Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children,”Cruise’s publicist said in a statement. “Please allow them their privacy to work this out.”