Katie tells Tom: We need to talk about Suri

The actress wants to keep her ex updated first hand about their their daughter’s activities, but instead it’s lawyers at 10 paces.

Co-parenting a child after a divorce is tough on any former couple. But throw warring A-list exes and a bitter disagreement over religious beliefs into the mix and it effectively becomes Mission: Impossible. In fact, so hurt is Tom Cruise by his then-wife Katie Holmes’ sudden decision to split, Woman’s Day’s sources say he rarely speaks with her at all, and much of their contact is through lawyers.

As Tom wants to stay informed of their daughter Suri’s every move as she goes about her new life in New York, Katie has to relay the information to her lawyer, who then passes it on to Tom’s long-time rep Bert Fields. “Tom is still sceptical of Suri not going to a Scientology school, so he wants weekly updates on Suri’s class topics, homework, teacher feedback, and even who she’s socialising with and the background of those children,” a source close to Katie tells us. “Yet he leaves all the one-on-one interacting with teachers to her.”

Katie was so desperate to escape her marriage with Tom that she stole out of their LA compound and filed for divorce in New York, while he was out of the country. But now she’s telling friends she finds Tom’s method of communication utterly ridiculous and would prefer they just speak directly.

“At first Tom wanted all communication to go through his sister Lee Anne DeVette, also a devoted Scientologist, but Katie had no interest in speaking to her so it’s come to this arrangement with the lawyers,” another insider confirms to Woman’s Day. It doesn’t help that the once-happy couple are now disagreeing – via third- hand arguments – over six-year-old Suri’s future.