updated - May 24, 2013 Friday EDT
Just two weeks after first announcing their divorce, the Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes announced earlier this week that they have quietly and privately reached a settlement and custody agreement of their 6-year-old daughter. This quick settlement has sparked rumors that the Church of Scientology had something to do with it as this wanted this to be resolved as quickly as possible, drawing less negative attention from this already unpopular church.
Tom Cruise's lawyer quickly addressed these reports, denying that the Church of Scientology pressured his client to reach a speedy settlement with Katie Holmes.
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"Let me be very clear about this. The Church of Scientology played absolutely no role in the divorce settlement talks at all," Bert Fields told RadarOnline.com.
"The mere suggestion that the Church was involved in any element of the talks and ultimate settlement is categorically false. Anyone suggesting otherwise is just wrong," he added.
The denial came after Marty Rathbun, a former high-ranking Church official who left in 2004, claimed in the Daily News that Church leader David Miscavige was pulling Cruise's strings behind the scenes.
The Church of Scientology, which has been called a cult for its outlandish doctrines and manipulations of its members to hand over large sums of money to the church, insist they did not play a role in the actual settlement talks, but it didn't necessarily address whether Scientology factored into the divorce itself.
Shortly after word of the split broke, a source close to Holmes told E! News that she "never truly comfortable" with the religion. "It was something she accepted and put up with for many years because it was important to Tom," the source said, adding, "It wasn't that she was against Scientology...but she also didn't want it to be her everything, and for Tom, in some ways, it was."
On the brighter side, the former couple appears to be moving on. A day after the settlement, Cruise was spotted-sans wedding ring-back on the California set of his new flick Oblivion, while half a continent away, Holmes stepped out on Tuesday with her mother and Suri for a gals' day out in New York City.
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