Tom Cruise's estranged daughter Suri turns 18 as she steps out in NYC holding a ... trends now

Tom Cruise’s estranged daughter Suri turned 18 on Thursday. 

She was seen out in NYC holding a birthday present with a friend, while her Scientologist father filmed Mission: Impossible 3,500 miles away in Britain.

Suri has spent much of the last 12 years living in the shadow of frenzied speculation over her infamously fractured relationship with her famous father.

And as she takes her first steps into adulthood, it seems she is finally ready to answer the question of her future with the Top Gun star once and for all. 

Today, the teenager will mark her milestone 18th birthday without her dad Tom, 61, who has all but been exiled from his youngest child's life for many years - a bitter rift that stems in large part from Katie and Suri's decision to cut ties with his controversial Scientology faith. 

The wedge that was initially driven between father and child at the time of his 2012 divorce has since become a rock-solid wall - one that Suri has no plans to ever break down, DailyMail.com can now reveal. 

At the age of 18, Suri is now a legal adult, 'officially' capable of making her own decisions. But while sources close to the teen say she is still weighing up her options as far as her future career is concerned, they note that she is crystal clear on one thing: 'Tom does not exist to her.' 

Suri's birthday today will officially sever all remaining ties with Tom on paper; as she turns 18, the Top Gun star will no longer be required to pay child support to Katie, a sum that reportedly amounted to a hefty $400,000 a year. 

But even the potential of future financial assistance will not lure Suri into pursuing a relationship with her father, the insiders insist. 

'Suri will not have any contact with her father, despite being 18, and even if he called, she would not answer,' one source told DailyMail.com. 'He does not exist to Katie or Suri, and his daughter does not want to rely on him for anything.' 

They continued: 'She feels that she has one parent and that is her mother.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Tom's representatives for comment.  

Suri's close bond with her mother is no secret; the pair are peas in a pod.

Dawson's Creek star Katie, 45, and her lookalike child are regularly pictured together in their hometown of New York, appearing every inch the happy mother-daughter duo. 

But while Suri has inherited much from her mother - a love of fashion, a passion for creativity, and Hollywood-worth looks - she has no plans to follow in Katie's footsteps as far as an on-screen career is concerned. 

Instead, insiders say, she is focused very much on remaining 'a private citizen' - or at least as private as her star-studded parentage will allow. 

While Suri has yet to cement her plans for the future, she appears to be clear on the fact that she does not wish to go down the path that so many Hollywood nepo babies have trod by forging her own career on the big or small screen. 

'She's currently weighing up her options for the future,' the source reveals. 'But she plans on remaining a private citizen.' 

Suri has however shown a keen interest in pursuing a career in fashion, with sources revealing back in March 2023 that she was 'leaning towards' studying the topic at college, focusing her application process large on the New York City area in order to remain close to her mother. 

But while she may not have crystalized all of her plans, one thing about her future is clear: Tom will have no part in it. 

It is a sad ending to what began as a seemingly-fairytale romance between her parents, one that left Tom literally jumping for joy when he bounced up and down on Oprah's couch in 2005 while proclaiming his love for Katie. 

Months later, the pair were wed in an elegant and suitably glitzy ceremony that was soon splashed across the cover of Hello! magazine, giving the world an inside look at Hollywood's newest golden couple. 

But that glitz soon began to tarnish, and just five and a half years after their wedding, Katie had filed for divorce, a move that Tom has since admitted he was 'deeply saddened' by. 

Suri was just six years old when her parents' marriage fell apart, but she very quickly found herself thrown into the center of the controversy surrounding their split - and the fevered fascination with the role that Tom's devotion to Scientology had played in it. 

Questions over whether she would continue to follow her father's faith were quickly answered: Katie was awarded sole custody of their daughter and made it glaringly apparent that she had no plans to allow Suri to be caught up in the scandalous world of Scientology.