Katie Holmes has filed for divorce from Tom Cruise and filed for full custody of their six year old daughter, Suri. Now everyone wants to know, what is she getting out of the divorce? We know that the couple signed a heavy pre-nup and Katie isn’t trying to take Tom’s money. If Katie and Tom had stayed married for 11 years, she would be entitled to half of his $250 million fortune. Find out how much she will be getting out of the divorce below.
But with an estate worth upwards of $275 million, Katie is expected to seek much more and there is already intense speculation as to how much she will collect when the papers are signed.
Sources reveal the 33-year-old 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.
After Katie’s lawyer announced her client was filing for divorce, representatives for Tom, 49, released a statement saying he was ‘very sad’ and ‘did not see this coming’.
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 finalized, each will keep their respective earnings from the projects they’ve worked on since November 2006. That’s in addition to the $3 million per year Cruise will give to Holmes.
There were also rumors that a certain degree of ‘nastiness’ was involved, evidenced by Katie’s intent to seek sole custody of Suri.
If she succeeds in this, the child support payments Tom will have to pay for his daughter could prove sizeable.
New York divorce attorney Vikki Ziegler told Hollywood Life that because of the prenup, Katie 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,’ she said. ‘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.’
TMZ.com have today reported that Katie filed divorce documents in New York because the courts look on sole custody more favourably than in California.
But sources told the gossip site that Cruise is trying to avoid ties with the city because of the high tax rates and he doesn’t want to let on that he and Katie have been living there.
TMZ however, claims it has obtained documents which show that Cruise deeded their Manhattan apartment to Katie last August specifically for tax purposes and she is using the apartment to establish residency in New York for the purpose of the divorce.
Shortly after they married in 2006, the couple paid $30million for a lavish nine-bedroom home on a Telluride, Colorado, estate which they were later rumored to have added a $10 million bunker to.
They also own a lavish apartment in New York’s Manhattan, where Katie is currently said to be holed up with the couple’s daughter Suri, while Tom films his new movie Oblivion in Iceland.
A $5 million home 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 actor 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 Katie 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, Tom 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 Tom or Katie incurred during their marriage.
However the prenuptial agreement changes all that.
