Katie Holmes used friends in the know to play a real-life game of “Mission Impossible” to get away from husband Tom Cruise.
Holmes reached out to Nicole Kidman as she secretly plotted her exit, US Weekly reported today.
“They’ve spoken over the last few weeks,” a confidante said of Holmes and Kidman, 45. “Nicole has been supportive, saying she’s been through it too and to hang in there.”
It’s not a brand-new friendship either, the confidante says, telling the mag that the women have been speaking since Holmes’ 2006 marriage to Cruise, 50. Kidman shares kids Isabella, 19, and Connor, 17, with Cruise.
“She has been a private friend not many people know about,” the source continues.
Holmes reportedly reached out to Kidman for advice after reaching the breaking point in her marriage to Cruise amid mounting fears about daughter Suri.
“Nicole offered her support and help,” the insider told to the mag.
Meanwhile, Holmes also used “throwaway” cell phones to leave the Hollywood star, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Holmes set the wheels in motion for her divorce from Tom Cruise using a throwaway cellphone provided by a friend to initially talk to her lawyers and avoid her husband knowing about the conversations,” the newspaper reports.
“The move allowed her to prepare her legal case without Cruise and his staff knowing she was about to exit the marriage and left him shocked at the sudden divorce,” the paper adds.
The report says that, “By the time a deal was struck last weekend to end the marriage, she hired three law firms in three states.”
“She pulled it off brilliantly,” an insider told magazine US Weekly of Holmes’ plan. “This was all played so well.”
Holmes and Cruise announced a confidential settlement Monday after marathon negotiations, following Holmes’ bombshell announcement she’d filed for divorce.
A report yesterday had one top Los Angeles lawyer estimating Cruise could be forking over a lump sum payment to Holmes worth up to $50 million, in addition to child support payments for their daughter Suri.
Page Six reported today that while Holmes was filing her divorce papers, Cruise was hard at work on the set in his new movie “Oblivion” with Ukrainian-born model and “Quantum of Solace” star Olga Kurylenko.