Katie Holmes Made Rare Comments About Her And Tom Cruise’s 18-Year-Old Daughter, Suri Cruise, As She Prepares To Leave For College

Katie Holmes is gearing up for her daughter’s next chapter.

As I’m sure you know, exes Katie and Tom Cruise share an 18-year-old daughter, Suri Cruise.

When Tom and Katie settled their divorce in 2012, it was agreed that Suri would live primarily with her mom on the East Coast. Since then, Tom and Suri have rarely been seen together, prompting speculation that the two are estranged.

For context, Tom — who also shares two children, Connor, 29, and Isabella, 31, with his ex-wife, Nicole Kidman — hardly ever talks publicly about fatherhood. He made a rare appearance with Connor in London in June and was last seen with Isabella in December 2023.

Since most of Suri’s upbringing was centered in New York with Katie, the mother-daughter duo appear to have grown incredibly close and are often photographed together in the city.

And now, with Suri soon heading off to college, Katie has opened up about the mixed emotions of becoming an empty nester.

“I’m proud of my daughter,” Katie told Town & Country in a wide-ranging interview published this week. “Of course, I will miss the close proximity, but I’m really proud of her and I’m happy.”

Katie is incredibly private about Suri, so the interview noted that this was all the Dawson’s Creek star was willing to share about family life. However, she took the opportunity to reflect on her experiences as a young adult, confessing that it makes her “happy” to imagine that Suri will soon embark on her own exciting journey.

I remember being this age, this time of beginnings,” said Katie, who was granted admission to Columbia University but decided to focus on her acting career instead. “It’s exciting to learn about yourself, and I loved that time, so it makes me happy to think about it like that.”

In May, a TikTok shared by one of Suri’s classmates — which is no longer available — showed the teen wearing a Carnegie Mellon University sweater, sparking speculation that she’ll be headed to Pittsburgh in the fall. Neither Katie nor Tom have publicly confirmed where Suri is attending college.

Tom was notably absent from Suri’s high school graduation ceremony in June, where she reportedly dropped “Cruise” from her name and instead went by “Suri Noelle” — a presumed nod to her mom’s middle name.

In 2013, Tom filed a defamation lawsuit against Bauer Publishing, challenging reports that he had “abandoned” Suri following his and Katie’s divorce.

Claiming in the suit that he and a then-6-year-old Suri “spoke on the phone nearly every day,” Tom said: “I have in no way cut Suri out of my life — whether physically, emotionally, financially or otherwise.” The lawsuit was settled in December of that year.