Tom Cruise settles lawsuit over 'abandoning' daughter

Tom Cruise (pic) has reached a settlement with a magazine publisher he sued for $50 million (RM164.38 million) in libel damages over claims he abandoned his daughter Suri after his divorce, the star's lawyer said Friday.

Terms of the agreement remain confidential, but a statement said German publisher Bauer acknowledged that it 'never intended" to suggest the "Mission Impossible" star abandoned his daughter.

His former wife Katie Holmes announced she was filing for divorce in June last year. The following month Bauer's Life & Style splashed the headline "Suri in tears, abandoned by her dad," over a picture of the sobbing girl, living with her mother in New York after the split.

That prompted Cruise's libel suit, which has been the subject of legal wrangling for more than a year.

"Tom Cruise's lawsuit against Bauer Publishing, In Touch and Life & Style magazines has been settled. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed and remain confidential," said a statement emailed to AFP by lawyer Bert Fields.

The publisher and its two magazines "never intended to communicate that Tom Cruise had cut off all ties and abandoned his daughter, Suri, and regret if anyone drew that inference from anything they published," said a joint statement.

Although the terms of the settlement were sealed, both sides agreed to pay their own legal fees, according to the TMZ celebrity news website.

The couple -- who wed in November 2006 after a whirlwind romance and a proposal beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris -- struck a divorce settlement within two weeks of Holmes' bombshell announcement.

Last month Cruise -- who appeared to have been taken completely by surprise by his wife's announcement -- denied having "abandoned" his daughter, while acknowledging that he has seen less of the seven-year-old.

In a statement filed in court, the US actor said he had a "wonderful relationship" with his daughter, who he said "has never indicated ... that she has ever felt abandoned by me."