Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes divorce in super-quick time for the sake of Suri (or is there more to it?)

Any couple who has gone through the pain and struggle of a divorce – especially when children are involved - will have raised their eyebrows when Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes announced they had reached a divorce settlement with super-quick speed this week.

After all, it was just a fortnight ago that the Hollywood couple revealed they had parted company after five years of marriage.

So have Tom-Kat set a new standard for civilised separations in which the interests of the child, or children, really are put first?

No-one but the parting couple (and their laywers) know what the terms of their agreement are, but according to both parties, their parting is amicable because they have put their six-year-old daughter Suri's welfare and happiness at the centre of everything.

"We are committed to working together as parents to accomplish what is in our daughter Suri's best interests," the couple told E! News in a statement.

Surely it can't be that civilised? Surely there must be a catch? Can such high-profile superstars really go their separate ways with no bad feeling and really do the best for their daughter?



According to New York family lawyer Bettina Hindin, Tom and Katie, 33, settled so quickly because 'cooler heads prevailed and they decided to do the right thing for their child'.

Or, she said, there may be something out there that one party knows and the other doesn't want anyone to know 'so they moved quickly to keep everything under a big canopy'.

What's more, don't expect new details of this marriage or divorce to leak out.

Confidentiality agreements are usually pretty standard in a settlement with high-powered clients, said Hindin.

"Settlement agreements involving celebrity people or of high net worth have a confidentiality clause in them," she said.

"And the confidentiality clause is usually very broad so that they can't give interviews, they can't write books, they can't write books in a non-fiction way that is really about themselves.

"It is really an open-ended clause that would protect both of them."

Whatever the real reason for TomKat's amicable split, only they can know. Let's hope it all works out for the best for the person who really matters – Suri.