Tom Cruise's Lawyer Confirms Impending Divorce Filing, Letting Katie Holmes 'Play the Media'

As speculation swirls around Katie Holmes’ decision to split from husband Tom Cruise, the 50-year-old actor has remained mostly mum on her divorce filing.

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In an initial statement on June 29, a rep for Cruise said, “Kate has filed for divorce, and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy to work this out.”

With an order to show cause hearing set for July 17, Cruise’s lawyer tells BBC News that the actor will file his own divorce documents after allowing Holmes’ legal team to “play the media” and “wear everyone out” first.

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“Tactically we can’t say where Tom will file a divorce case and if he’ll be seeking joint custody of Suri,” Bert Fields said, though it has been widely speculated that Cruise will file in Los Angeles where the likelihood of being granted joint custody is higher. Holmes is said to be seeking sole legal custody of the couple’s 6-year-old daughter in New York City, where she filed for divorce in late June, amid indications that she does not want Suri raised as a Scientologist.

“We are letting ‘the other side’ [Holmes’ and her lawyers, Jonathan Wolfe and Allan Mayefsky] play the media until they wear everyone out and then we’ll have something to say,” added Fields. “It’s not Tom’s style to do this publicly. He is really sad about what’s happening.”

Cruise is currently filming the action sci-fi Oblivion for Universal in Iceland. On Thursday, Forbes named Cruise the highest-paid actor of the last year, earning $76 million.