And the 33-year-old actress wants sole custody of their daughter, Suri. - New York Daily News

Actress Katie Holmes is ending her five-year marriage to heartbroken hubby Tom Cruise in a surprise split reportedly centered on Scientology.

And the 33-year-old actress wants sole custody of their daughter, Suri.

Holmes announced the blockbuster breakup through her New Jersey-based lawyer Friday saying her primary concern is the couple’s 6-year-old daughter.

Cruise’s camp said the 49-year-old “Top Gun” star is devastated.

“Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy,” Cruise’s rep said in a statement to the Daily News.

One source told The News that serious disagreements over their star spawn fueled the breakup.

“(It was) issues raising Suri, different ideas of parenting,” the source said. “They are both very close to her.”

Cruise and Holmes can hardly take their hands off each other at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Cruise’s fierce ties to the Church of Scientology were the root of the problem, sources told TMZ.com.

Holmes reportedly feared Cruise would “drag” Suri deep into the controversial religion as she grew older.

The former “Dawson’s Creek” star filed anonymously in New York on Thursday citing “irreconcilable differences” and is asking for full custody, a sign of “nastiness” in the split, TMZ said.

Sole legal custody would give Holmes control over decisions related to Suri’s schools and religious activities.

PHOTOS: A LOOK BACK AT TOM CRUISE AND KATIE HOLMES' ROMANCE

Experts said Holmes likely chose the Empire State over filing in California â€" they have homes on both coasts â€" because divorces are sealed in New York.

Veteran divorce attorney Raoul Felder said if there’s a war brewing, New York judges would be more likely to look askance at Cruise’s faith.

“If there is a custody battle, you better believe Scientology will play a role,” he said.

The couple’s prenup is almost certainly “bullet proof” in the areas of property and finances, he added.

The timing could be critical.

Holmes and Cruise (holding Suri) attend a pre-wedding dinner in Italy in 2006. (GIULIO NAPOLITANO/AFP/Getty Images)

Suri is at the age when children typically begin participating in a core Scientology practice called auditing â€" a version of counseling in which an individual discusses painful experiences while connected to a lie detector-type device called an E-meter.

Many Scientology kids also go through a Purification Rundown in the elementary school years â€" a regime that includes vitamins and sitting in a sauna for hours on end to cleanse the body of toxins.

The shocking split came after Cruise gushed about his wife in recent red carpet appearances and on the heels of a photo showing the couple holding hands in Reykjavik, Iceland, where Cruise is shooting his new movie “Oblivion.”

Both spouses were spotted sporting their wedding rings this week.

Earlier this month Cruise gushed about his wife while promoting his movie “Rock of Ages.”

“Nothing’s more important than my wife, my children,” Cruise told a reporter at the flick’s London premiere. “She’s an amazing woman, and I have amazing kids. ...I feel very lucky.”

He told Playboy in May that Holmes “is an extraordinary person, and if you spent five minutes with her, you’d see it.”

Holmes and Cruise attended a Super Bowl party in Miami in Feb. 2010. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

The couple, nicknamed TomKat, burst onto the pop culture scene in 2005 with a euphoric, whirlwind courtship that culminated with a candle-lit proposal at Paris’ Eiffel Tower after just two months of dating.

“I’ve always said it was my dream to marry Tom Cruise. Sometimes dreams do come true,” the actress best known for her role on the 90’s TV drama “Dawson’s Creek” told the Chicago Sun-Times in June 2005, shortly after the engagement. “I’m so happy. I’m just at this great place.”

Cruise famously proclaimed his undying love for Holmes by jumping on Oprah’s couch like a hyperactive puppy.

Suri was born in April 2006, and the couple tied the knot that November during a star-studded wedding held at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy.

The couple eventually became more guarded, and tabloid magazines started running countless photos of Holmes looking glum and “tired” in public. Headlines speculated that life in Cruise’s shadow was taking its toll.

Many of Holmes’ attempts to recharge her promising career after Suri’s birth seemed to fall flat.

The 2011 miniseries “The Kennedys,” in which she played a glamorous Jackie Kennedy opposite Greg Kinnear, was rejected by the History Channel and barely saw the light of day on the obscure Reelz cable channel.

The A-list marriage was the first for Holmes and the third for Cruise, who previously was hitched to actresses Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman, with whom he has two adopted children.

“This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,” Holmes’ lawyer Jonathan Wolfe said in a statement. “Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.”

- With Cristina Everett

ndillon@nydailynews.com