Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were the iconic power couple, even more so when they had Suri. Born on 18 April 2006, they vowed to protect her tirelessly from the media. Especially the paparazzi, regularly covering her face when they went out. They never posted about her on their socials and did not create any media profiles for her anywhere to shield her from Hollywood.
Suri followed suit by staying away from social media in an effort to lead a normal, healthy life as a child, but things have changed. Now 16, Suri cannot leave the house without the paparazzi hot on her heels, being photographed wherever she goes. It’s no wonder they’re after her though. She looks JUST like her parents!
Some children take after one parent, but you can see both parents in Suri Cruise
Suri is said to not have the best relationship with her father, Tom Cruise. They haven’t been spotted together in public since 2012 and Katie seems to be parenting Suri mostly on her own. She frustratingly claims Tom is not present as a father. Some theorize that this is due to his faith in Scientology, but that has been disproven. Scientology as out there as it may seem encourages families to stay together. It may just be that they have decided to not socialize in the public’s eye.
Her mother shared an adorable throwback photo of her daughter on Mother’s Day. “I am so grateful to be a mom to the sweetest daughter. Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms!!!!”
One can see the love shared between the two. She regularly posts about her daughter now, as any proud parent would. This looked like the best hug between mother and daughter. Katie captioned the snap: “Happy 15th Birthday Sweetheart! I love you!!!!!!!! I can’t believe you are already 15!”
For Katie Holmes, “motherhood means everything.”
“My main goal is to just let her know how much I love her,” the actress told PEOPLE in 2014. “I didn’t know how much love I had in me. It’s overwhelming,” she told designer and friend Zac Posen in an August 2014 cover story for Glamour. “Every day I discover more about this spectacular human being I get to be the mother of.”
“The most important thing for me is letting her know how proud I am and that her accomplishments mean everything,” Holmes said on the Today Show. “Whatever I do is whatever. It’s really just about her and that’s what I think is most important.”
Read: Julia Roberts’ Daughter Hazel is Growing Up Fast and Looks Just Like Her Mother
“Motherhood means everything to me,” Holmes said in a PEOPLE cover story in November 2014. “I’m learning every day, and I have been since the minute I became a mom.” She added that her “patience has grown” and that she was focused on trying to set a positive example for her daughter.
“Between tickle fights and glitter art, I try to throw in some manners along the way. I try to have good manners too, so that’s what she sees. I also try to be very creative with her, because I know she’s an artist, and that speaks to the girl in me,” Holmes said, before adding that she did have to draw the line somewhere. “To be honest? I’m not going to play tag, probably. That’s not top of my list. But I’ll paint all day, I’ll do the creative stuff.”
Katie Holmes’s daughter is her everything
“My main goal is to just let her know how much I love her,” she told PEOPLE in 2014. “Just to let her know that she is so loved. When that’s the through line, who cares that my first two pancakes are always burned?” Holmes gushed about her ultra-supportive mother, Kathleen, “who is always willing to fly to me if I need her, and even when I don’t,” she previously told PEOPLE.
She added that her “girlfriends of all ages, who have children of all ages” also were instrumental in raising Suri. “I lean on them. For advice, for recipes, for all of that stuff: ‘What am I supposed to do? Can you come over and watch? Can you be a helping hand?’ And I do have help, yes, but … it’s your baby, you know? You want to be the one who is there,” Holmes said.
Plagued by constant guilt, Suri Cruise’s mother got frank
The actress revealed that despite her best efforts, she often felt plagued by a sense of guilt. “‘Am I enough? Am I doing enough? Have I seen her enough?’ ” she told PEOPLE that she would ask herself. “Guess what? You’re not enough, she hasn’t seen you enough, you’re horrible: That’s how it can feel sometimes. You do the best you can. Some days you feel really good about yourself and some days you don’t.”
She continued: “Motherhood has taught me to just let go of some things, to relinquish control. There’s a playdate you weren’t expecting — I’ve had to learn to ask myself, ‘Is this worth it? Is it going to make her smile?’ And if it is, then yeah, we’re probably gonna do it. Maybe that means dinner at 8 instead of 6, and a snack in between. Fine. Things don’t have to happen a certain way. I think we all need to ease up on the expectations. We’re all trying to do the best we can. Motherhood taught me that.”
Suri Cruise spoke out, defending her mother
“She’s just so kind and has such a pure heart; she really leads with those two qualities, so I try to do the same,” Holmes previously told PEOPLE of her mom. “She’s just so kind and very generous, so I try my best to embody that and pass that on to my own daughter,” she added. It seems that their bond is tighter than ever.
