Will Suri Cruise continue to be raised strictly as a Scientologist after her famous parents settle their divorce and custody dispute?
Not if Katie Holmes has her way.
A source tells the new Us Weekly that, prior to Holmes' June 28 divorce filing, she and Tom Cruise "fought viciously" over how to raise their six-year-old daughter — and the 33-year-old actress bristled at the bizarre tenets behind Scientology parenting.
Raised a Catholic but converting to the talked-about faith after getting together with Cruise, 50, back in 2005, Holmes is fed up with the demands of child-rearing according to Scientology's rules.
Some of the practices she objects to?
As an infant, little Suri was fed a mixture of barley water, milk and corn syrup instead of formula or breast milk, as prescribed by founder L. Ron Hubbard.
While Cruise enlisted Scientologists to homeschool his children (which also include Connor, 17, and Bella, 19, his kids with ex Nicole Kidman), Holmes wanted a more traditional education for her daughter. "They fought over schools," a source says.
Suri's famously indulged life — designer clothes, frequent ice cream stops — was a result of another Scientology tenet, in which parents "treat kids like grown-ups," a source says. Another insider adds that Cruise was "all-around overindulgent" with Suri. "Katie struggled to be a disciplinarian."
Holmes herself stopped going to Scientology classes — which she once attended up to three times a week — about a year and a half ago. In her divorce filing last week, she asked for sole legal custody of Suri.
"She wants to be in charge of how Suri is being raised and didn' want her to have an exclusively Scientology education," a Holmes source tells Us.
