Tom Cruise settles $50million defamation case over claims he abandoned daughter Suri
Attorneys for Cruise and Bauer Publishing Company made the mutual decision to drop the case
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Your support makes all the difference.Tom Cruise has settled a $50million defamation lawsuit against a German media company that claimed he had “abandoned” his daughter Suri after his divorce from actress Katie Holmes.
Attorneys for Cruise and Bauer Publishing Company, which publishes U.S. celebrity magazines Life & Style and InTouch Weekly, made a mutual decision to drop the case.
Each party agreed to pay their own costs and attorneys' fees, according to a document filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Cruise’s attorney, Bertram Fields, said in a statement that the media company “never intended to communicate that Tom Cruise had cut off all ties and abandoned his daughter, Suri, and regret if anyone drew that inference from anything they published.”
He added that the full terms of the settlement were confidential. Bauer has not commented on the case.
Cruise filed the suit in October 2012. The suit alleged that he was defamed, and that his privacy was invaded by the 30 July 2012 issue of Life & Style and the 1 October 2012 issue of InTouch, as well as online images of their covers, which included photos of Cruise’s daughter.
The case was scheduled to go to trial in June 2014 over claims that Cruise was unable to be present in seven-year-old Suri’s life.
In a declaration filed in federal court last month, Cruise denied that he had cut his daughter out of his life, “whether physically, emotionally, financially or otherwise”.
He added: “While I'm sure my daughter misses me when I am not with her (as I miss her), she is a very happy child.”
Holmes and Cruise divorced in June 2012 following six years of marriage.
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