In Tom’s desperation to win Suri’s favour, his first daughter has been left behind.
Tom Cruise has made sure daughter Suri has lived every little girl’s dream in the past week. The mini A-lister had the run of Walt Disney World in Florida, even getting a money-can’t-buy stay in the exclusive princess suite in Cinderella’s castle. Still reeling from his divorce and missing his gregarious six-year-old, it’s clear Tom only has eyes for Suri. In fact, it’s easy to forget he has two other children.
While Suri gets ferried around New York in a helicopter with Dad as he searches for a luxury house near to the Manhattan apartment she shares with mum Katie, Isabella and Connor have barely seen their father.”They’re out there on their own, fending for themselves,” a source close to Tom tells Woman’s Day exclusively.Like any 17-year-old boy, Connor appears to be relishing his freedom, hitting the club scene and hooning around town with gorgeous young LA party girls.
But Bella, 19, appears to be suffering the most from the lack of parental guidance. Her low-key life in a grimy one-bedroom apartment she shares with boyfriend Eddie Frencher, in the middle of dangerous downtown LA, is a far cry from the five-star hotels Suri stays in with her dad when he’s in town. And whenever Bella ventures out, it’s usually to wander aimlessly around her neighbourhood, stopping to pick up armfuls of junk food or takeaway.
“Bella is a little lost right now. She’s old enough to have the freedom, but she’s not very confident,” our insider explains. “When Katie fired her from her fashion house Holmes & Yang earlier this year, Bella lost some motivation. She’s just bored so she’s meandering around town with that guy [Eddie]. Tom allows it but it’s only because he’s too busy and really doesn’t have the time to look after anyone but himself and Suri.”
Read more about the very different lives of Suri and Bella in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday August 13, 2012.