Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes Split: The Full Story

Katie Holmes has filed for divorce in New York citing 'irreconcilable differences', announcing the split via a statement to People magazine.

Hubby Tom Cruise, 49, said that he was 'deeply saddened' by the news.

The pair signed a prenuptial agreement before their wedding in November 2006, which guarantees Holmes a yearly sum.

However, legal experts said that the actor could be prepared to give up a larger slice of his 160-million-pound fortune in return for Holmes remaining silent about the details of their marriage.

Cruise remains one of the world's most bankable actors. The star of Top Gun and the Mission: Impossible franchise earned an estimated 50 million pounds last year alone and runs his own Hollywood production company.

'One thing you can rely on is that Tom Cruise will have an airtight pre-nup. This is a man who is in control of everything and the pre-nup will be pretty restrictive,' the Telegraph quoted Michael Kelly, a leading Californian divorce lawyer who specialises in pre-nuptial agreements, as saying.

'He could choose to give Katie a bigger settlement, as Tiger Woods did with his wife, but that will be his choice. There is also the prospect of a custody dispute, which he will want to avoid,' the lawyer said.

This will be the third divorce for Cruise. He was married to Mimi Rogers, the actress, from 1987-1990 and to Nicole Kidman from 1990-2001, with whom he adopted two children.

His relationship with Holmes, then an up-and-coming actress best known for her role in teen drama Dawson's Creek, began in April 2005.

Two months later, Cruise used a press conference in Paris to announce that he had proposed under the Eiffel Tower.

The wedding took place in November 2006, a lavish affair in an Italian castle with guests including the Beckhams and Giorgio Armani.

The couple were last photographed together in February and Holmes was absent from the red carpet during Cruise's recent promotional tour for Rock of Ages.

'Kate has filed for divorce. Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children,' a spokesman for Cruise said.

The actor is currently in Iceland shooting a new sci-fi film, Oblivion.

According to sources, Cruise was 'blindsided' by the move and that Holmes' uncompromising bid for sole custody of six-year-old daughter Suri shows the 'nastiness' behind the split.

'This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,' the Sun quoted Katie's lawyer Jonathan Wolfe as saying.

'Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest,' Wolfe said.

A source close to Cruise, also dad to two adopted children, said he 'did not see this coming.'

Holmes was reportedly scared that she was turning 'into a robot' because of his controlling ways.

The 33-year-old actress felt like she had changed 'so much' in her time with Tom.

Sources close to the actress told friends she had found that her relationship with the megastar had become 'too much' for her.

'After five years of this Katie really felt like she was going crazy and that she was actually turning into the robot that the press had always made her out to be,' the Daily Mail quoted a source as telling RadarOnline.

'Katie has actually got a great personality and she used to be spunky and feisty. She changed so much when she was with Tom, she became downtrodden and insipid.

'In the end it just got too much, she was sick of it and decided she had to do something. Basically, she grew up and lost the star-struck goggles she had been wearing,' the source said.

'Katie did not want Tom making all the decisions in Suri's life, and that's what was going on. She decided it was high time she started deciding on what was best for her daughter, or at least having an equal say, and she knew that would be impossible if she remained Mrs Tom Cruise,' the source said.

Holmes's lawyer Jonathan Wolfe said in a statement that her primary concern was her daughter Suri. 'Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest,' Wolfe said in a statement to People magazine.

But it seems that Katie's parents are also happy to have their baby back.

A source told RadarOnline that it was tough for them over the past five years to watch Katie be controlled by Tom and they really felt that they had lost their daughter to some extent.

'So, that's the one bright side to the divorce -- they feel like they're getting the old Katie back again,' the source said.

The actress is entitled to get $15 million as well as the couple's $35 million Beverly Hills Mansion, according to the prenuptial agreement.

But with an estate worth more than $275 million, Holmes is expected to seek much more and there is already intense speculation as to how much she will collect when the papers are signed.

According to sources, the actress is asking for a 'suitable amount' of child support, as well as a division of property, though no mention was made of the prenuptial agreement in divorce papers.

Since they did not stay married for 11 years, the prenuptial agreement explicitly states that California community property laws won't apply to the divorce -- which normally sees a couple's assets split 50/50.

When the divorce is eventually finalised, each will keep their respective earnings from the projects they've worked on since November 2006. That is in addition to the $3 million per year Cruise will give to Holmes.

The child support payments Cruise will have to pay for his daughter could prove sizeable.

New York divorce attorney Vikki Ziegler told Hollywood Life that because of the prenup, Holmes stands to lose millions and will need to use their six-year-old daughter as a pawn to get more money.

'Most of the estate is Tom's. She'll have to go for a lot of child support,' the Daily Mail quoted her as saying. 'She'll have to show that Suri has nannies, cars, activities, clothes, hair appointments. That a hefty amount each month is needed to maintain Suri's lifestyle,' the lawyer added.

Shortly after they married in 2006, the couple paid $30 million for a lavish nine-bedroom home on a Telluride, Colorado, estate which they were later rumoured to have added a $10 million bunker to.

They also own a lavish apartment in New York's Manhattan, where Holmes is currently said to be holed up with Suri, while Cruise films his new movie Oblivion in Iceland.

A $5 millionhome in Sussex, England, which features six bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, underground garage, sports pavilion, high tech security system and staff cottage as well as villa in Italy's Lake Como bought from friend George Clooney for almost $7 million adds to the couple's multimillion dollar estate.

The Mission Impossible star likes to indulge in a number of expensive hobbies and has over the years collected three aircrafts, several cars and a 60-foot yacht.

After the couple married, the actor bought Holmes a luxurious wedding gift in the form of a Gulfstream IV-SP, about which she famously said: 'It's like a bus, only quicker.'

Cruise also owns a luxurious airplane Aviat -- Pitts S-2B and a North American Aviation P-51 Mustang. The jet has painted on one of it's side 'Kiss Me, Kate.'

As well as aircrafts, Cruise has a number of sports cars in his possession -- a Porsce 911 and a 16-cylinder V8.

The couple lived in Beverly Hills so California law would have been applied to the separation of assets.

California is a community property state, so normally a couple's assets must be split evenly in divorce. Any money earned would be split 50/50, as would any debt either Cruise or Holmes incurred during their marriage.