Suri Cruise has come a very long way since her early days of dodging paparazzi cameras alongside her A-list parents. From Vanity Fair cover baby to tall and proud teen, the famous daughter has grown up right before our eyes.
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00:00Suri Cruise has come a very long way since her early days of dodging paparazzi cameras
00:06alongside her A-list parents. From Vanity Fair cover baby to tall and proud teen,
00:11the famous daughter has grown up right before our eyes.
00:15While some celebrity parents are private when it comes to the birth of their children,
00:19in 2006, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise couldn't help but gush over their newborn daughter to
00:24the press. In fact, Suri Cruise's photo was printed on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine
00:29before she even knew how to crawl. In the exclusive cover story,
00:33writer James Sarkin recorded inside details about the baby's appearance,
00:37Suri's unique name, and her parents' budding relationship with their newborn daughter.
00:42Coming in at just 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and 20 inches in length, baby Suri was tiny by adult
00:47standards. However, she was right on track to develop normally, as the average length for a
00:52newborn is 19 to 20 inches. Her small stature wasn't the only way she resembled her famous
00:58father, either. As a baby, Suri had what Sarkin called Tom's famous helmet of dark brown hair.
01:04The young parents were the perfect image of the nuclear family,
01:07and the public couldn't get enough of beautiful Suri, either.
01:10How is little Suri?
01:12She's great, thank you.
01:14As the daughter of a Dawson's Creek alum and one of Hollywood's last true movie stars,
01:18it was inevitable that Suri would have to deal with the paparazzi. However,
01:22the media attention that the little girl attracted in her early years was chaotic,
01:26to say the least. In the early 2000s, almost every photo of Suri shows her carried in her
01:32parents' arms with her head bowed down. With a flurry of photographers following her and her
01:36family every time they stepped outside their home, it's no surprise that the public didn't
01:41get too many peeks at Suri during her first few years. Understandably, homes and crews
01:46seemed protective of their little girl. However, differences in the pair's parenting philosophies
01:51can be seen in the conflicting statements they've given to the press over the years.
01:55Katie opened up in a rare Today show appearance about her desire for her daughter to grow up
02:00out of the spotlight. Tom, on the other hand, admitted that he sees the media attention as
02:04something his daughter will just have to get used to after a while. Speaking with GMTV in 2009,
02:10the Mission Impossible star admitted that he didn't want his youngest daughter to be
02:14sheltered in any way. Like many Nepo babies before her, Suri has logged many hours toddling
02:20around on film sets. While images of Suri on her own two feet were hard to come by in the early
02:25days, reports from behind the scenes of her dad's film projects gave fans insight into how Hollywood's
02:31new It baby was developing. In the lead-up to Tom Cruise's 2010 film Night and Day, co-star
02:37Cameron Diaz couldn't help but open up about four-year-old Suri's on-set shenanigans during
02:41an interview with GMTV. Despite the movie bombing at the box office, it seems Suri made the set her
02:47playground, and Diaz spoke positively about Suri's imaginative games. She said,
02:52"'It was like, these are what muffins we have today,' and she played out all these scenes.
02:57It was so fun. Suri was going around serving all of us."
03:00While there are sadly no photos of all the fun and games that reportedly took place on the Night
03:04and Day set, these little anecdotes shared during the film's press tour hinted at the fact that
03:09Suri was not only up and running, but also up and running businesses. Tom, for his part, also
03:14couldn't help but brag about his daughter's creative powers, telling GMTV,
03:18"'She draws, she acts, she writes. In between takes she would have her own little scenes going on.'"
03:24"'You know, she's just very special.'"
03:26By 2008, Suri was strutting her stuff in public. While the world's rare glimpses
03:30into the girl's life had included paparazzi snaps of her face buried in her parents' necks,
03:35by the time she turned 2, the public celebrated their first peeks at the toddler exploring the
03:40world on her own. In tabloid photos from this time, Holmes can be seen reaching down to hold
03:45Suri's hand, most likely to make sure that she didn't take a tumble in front of the cameras.
03:50That same year, the toddler was voted Hollywood's Hottest Tot by Forbes magazine.
03:54While this may seem like a fluff title, in actuality, it's empirical evidence of just
03:59how big a role Suri played in the pop culture landscape. The top honor was calculated by
04:04measuring press clippings and blog mentions of all the biggest celebrity kids of the day,
04:08with ePoll market research also factoring in the consumer appeal of both parents.
04:13In the end, it was the soon-to-be statuesque Suri who won out.
04:17If anyone had any worries about Suri's development, they were put to rest when
04:21photos were released of the 3-year-old running along a track with her mother in October 2009.
04:26Far from the glamorous red carpet looks that Holmes' fans were used to seeing,
04:30the Batman Begins star was dressed head-to-toe in track and field gear.
04:34Little Suri also traded in her chic dresses and miniature-sized ballet flats
04:38for a light purple tank top and sporty tennis shoes. For a family unit so private,
04:43this quiet moment revealed a lot about their mother-daughter dynamic. For one,
04:47it showed that Katie wasn't afraid to get active with her daughter. And with her pigtails bobbing
04:52along as she ran, Suri was already foreshadowing to fans just how strong, tall, and athletic she
04:57would one day grow up to be. Although she has famous parents, Suri's childhood wasn't all
05:03helicopter rides and red carpet premieres — although, admittedly, there were a few of those,
05:07too. Paparazzi pics from Suri's childhood reveal that Holmes was determined to give her daughter
05:12some ordinary experiences of girlhood as well. In 2011, the youngster was photographed in a
05:18gymnastics studio, all suited up in her pink and black leotard and taking directions from
05:23a woman who appeared to be her coach. Over the years, more leaked photos showed Suri advancing
05:28in her gymnast skills, including photos that showed her leaping atop a balance beam and smiling
05:33at the crowd as she completed a backbend. Not only did these tumble-ready pics show that Suri was
05:38being raised with some semblance of normalcy, but they also gave fans a look at just how much she
05:43had grown since her iconic Vanity Fair cover. In the summer of 2012, Suri took to the streets
05:49on her very own bright pink bicycle. The then-six-year-old was an adorable sight,
05:54giving some of her stuffed animals a ride in the bicycle's basket. While she wasn't wearing
05:58any knee pads, Suri was rocking a matching pink helmet. But not to worry, Holmes was photographed
06:03smiling as she walked alongside her daughter. She even had one hand on the handlebars,
06:08making sure her small bicyclist didn't take a tumble.
06:11"'She's a sophisticated little girl and magical.'"
06:17On June 29, 2012, Cruise and Holmes announced that they were getting a divorce.
06:22For a couple who had garnered an extreme amount of publicity during their time together,
06:27the news of their divorce was a shocker. However, it wasn't just their fans who were affected by the
06:31news of their split. Suri was only six years old when her parents went their separate ways,
06:36and according to reports, it wasn't the most amicable of splits.
06:40While Katie has refrained from speaking out about her reasons for filing for divorce,
06:44many believe that it was her fear of her husband's Scientologist faith
06:48that led her to go her own way.
06:50"'I think it's a privilege to call yourself a Scientologist.'"
06:53At the time, Katie's lawyer issued a statement to People that read,
06:56"'Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest.'"
07:01Tom's People issued their own statement to the magazine, which read,
07:05"'Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three
07:10children.'"
07:10Despite the star's claim, Suri's parents' divorce concluded with her mom receiving sole custody.
07:15As the years have rolled on, insiders claim that Suri's father has no role in her life.
07:21When she was younger, paparazzi pics often showed little Suri's father carrying her.
07:25However, as reports of Cruz and Holmes' divorce raged on,
07:29these father-daughter outings became less frequent. Sadly,
07:32one of Suri and her father's last public appearances together came in July 2012.
07:37Meanwhile, the little girl's bond with her mother seemed to only grow stronger.
07:41When the news of her parents' divorce officially broke,
07:44Suri was seen walking around New York City in matching outfits with her mother.
07:48The young girl wore a summery dress in a light pink blush color paired with bright red shoes.
07:53Holding onto Suri's hand was her mom, who wore a casual pair of tight blue jeans,
07:58brown suede boots, and a flowing top in the same summer blush shade as her daughter's dress.
08:02To shield her eyes from the sun and, most likely, the flash of the paparazzi's cameras,
08:07she also donned a pair of dark sunglasses. Even though Suri hadn't even reached the age of 10
08:12yet, photos of this sweet moment showed that she was already elbow-high next to her mother,
08:16who reportedly stands at 5'9".
08:19After her parents' divorce, Suri began living in New York full-time with her mother.
08:24So the duo was dodging the cameras less frequently and accepting more
08:27invitations to high-profile events. In 2018, Katie and Suri attended the
08:32American Ballet Theater's yearly Spring Gala, hosted in the Big Apple's Metropolitan Opera
08:37House. As she'd spent much of her earlier life avoiding the paparazzi, it was a surprise to
08:42see the smiling 12-year-old by her mother's side. The twosome wore matching floral dresses,
08:47which was right on theme for the May event. Katie donned a Tiffany Blue Zac Posen dress
08:52that featured embossed blue floral details, while Suri stunned in a blue Dolce & Gabbana dress,
08:57except her mini version of the frock included red floral designs.
09:01Both mom and daughter also wore cream-colored shoes. However,
09:04Suri took the prize for the greatest accessory of the night with her flower crown.
09:08Side by side, the tweens' height reached her mom's shoulders,
09:12proving she was on her way to becoming a tall teenager.
09:15The beauty tip that I will pass on to my daughter is to find happiness in everything."
09:22As the years rolled on and the fervor over TomKat's demise died down,
09:26public sightings of Suri with her mother became a more relaxed affair.
09:30In 2019, the pair were spotted strolling along New York's Upper West Side without
09:34a single security guard or chauffeur in sight. According to the Daily Mail,
09:38the mother-daughter duo had just attended a yoga class together,
09:41proving their close relationship wasn't just the stuff of tabloids.
09:45The close pair wore matching athletic gear. Katie Holmes had her hair tied up in a loose
09:49bun with black yoga pants, and then 13-year-old Suri donned a pink t-shirt and galaxy print yoga
09:55pants. The two walked off their yoga moves, jovially chatting in the sun and seemingly
09:59ignoring the paparazzi's cameras. As they walked side by side, it was hard not to notice just how
10:04tall the once-small infant had grown. Suri reached well past her mother's shoulders,
10:09and it seemed all signs were pointing to her growing taller than her famous mom.
10:14Suri and her mom were seen strolling the streets of New York City once more in the winter of 2021.
10:19Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mother and daughter were both rocking face masks as they casually
10:24walked and talked together, each with a shopping bag under their arm. Suri was the spitting image
10:30of her brunette mom, although her aesthetic was far more colorful. The Dawson's Creek star rocked
10:35a pea-green coat and jeans while Suri wore a pastel blue bubble coat over a bright pink sweater.
10:41Most eye-catching of all, though, was how tall Suri had grown.
10:44She now stood at nearly the same height as her 5-foot-9 mother.
10:47Will we see Suri strutting her stuff down the catwalk one day?
10:51Or might she follow in her mother's footsteps and pursue a career on the screen?
10:55Only time will tell, but one thing is clear — the famous teenager has her statuesque frame on her
11:00side.