Suri Cruise has finally flown the nest and is settling into her freshman year at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania; and her mom, Katie Holmes, has an uncertain future ahead as she makes plans to revitalize her career.
The Dawson's Creek actress dropped her only child off at the university over the weekend as Suri prepares to begin life as a fully-fledged college student. Noticeably absent was her superstar father, Tom Cruise, who has not been seen with his daughter since 2013.
Katie and Tom were famously married for six years before she filed for divorce and fled to New York to raise Suri away from the influence of Scientology, of which Tom was one of its most famous and vocal proponents.
Katie was granted full custody of their daughter in the split, with the divorce settlement also stating that Tom had to pay $400,000 a year in child support payments, as well as all of Suri's "medical, dental, insurance, education, college and other extracurricular costs."
The child support payments have ceased now that Suri is 18 and no longer living with her mother, and the Batman Begins actress is sure to feel her absence.
Katie spoke to Town and Country magazine this year about her daughter leaving for the big wide world and how much she will miss her mini-me.
"You want them to stay with you forever, but they're these amazing beings, and you have to do everything you can to give them what they need — and then they're going to go. And that’s going to be very, very sad for me," she said.
"Of course, I will miss the close proximity, but I'm really proud of her, and I'm happy," she continued.
"I remember being this age, this time of beginnings. It's exciting to learn about yourself, and I loved that time, so it makes me happy to think about it like that."
She joked that her book club members "are going to get annoyed" hearing from her as she finds new ways to fill her time.
"I'll be like, 'Let's meet once a week'."
As the 45-year-old says goodbye to her daughter, she is now setting her sights on expanding her career into theater and television. From September onwards, she will star in the revival of Our Town on Broadway, alongside Jim Parsons, at the Barrymore Theatre.
She is also set to join the season two cast of Peacock’s Poker Face, which stars the effervescent Natasha Lyonne and was created by Rian Johnson of Knives Out and Star Wars fame.
The mother of one expressed her excitement at her upcoming role, posting the announcement to Instagram in July; she wrote, "What a thrill!...Thank you @nlyonne for having me!"
While Katie's career has been varied, her projects have generally been received with lukewarm reviews after the massive success of Dawson's Creek.
She is, however, multitalented and as comfortable behind the camera as she is in front of it. She wrote, directed and starred in the drama Alone Together in 2022 and directed Rare Objects in 2023, which she had been adapting since 2016.
She told Variety while she loves to direct and take control of a project, it is "satisfying to be a part of someone else’s vision and to learn from them".
As for how she chooses her roles, she prefers to go for "strong women" and "a lot of mother roles." She revealed, "I feel like I have a lot of insight on that."