Katie Holmes 'couldn't breathe' without Tom Cruise's permission

Tom Cruise controlled every aspect of Katie Holmes's life, making all personal and professional decisions on her behalf, sources close to the actress have claimed.

As the gloves came off in what looks likely to be one of Hollywood's most bitterly contested divorces, sources close to Holmes, 33, suggested that she "couldn't breathe" without his permission.

Cruise, 50, was said to have barred her from being shown kissing co-stars in films and to have encouraged her to travel separately from fellow cast members.

Cruise's team mocked the suggestions and accused Holmes of "playing the media".

When their relationship started in 2005, Holmes had been working on the film Thank You for Smoking. According to the celebrity website TMZ, her husband-to-be imposed a so-called "art kill" which stopped the release of any promotional photographs showing Holmes kissing co-star Aaron Eckhart.

She later filmed the blockbuster Batman Begins and he was said to have stopped her flying on a plane with the rest of the cast, putting her on his own jet instead.

However, a source close to Cruise ridiculed the claims, saying: "Wow, Tom offered her his private jet. How terrible for Katie."

Holmes filed for divorce and custody of the couple's six-year-old daughter, Suri, on June 28 in New York. Since then an increasingly aggressive war of words has broken out between the two camps.

Holmes's side has indicated that she wanted to stop Suri being brought up in the controversial Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a leading advocate.

The actress was raised a Roman Catholic, but Cruise's aides have claimed that she became "totally committed to Scientology" and that religion is not the real issue between them.

According to TMZ, through which much of the public relations battle is being fought, Holmes had become "sick and tired of playing Pinocchio to Tom's Geppetto and decided it was time to cut the strings".

That theory chimes with an interview Holmes conducted for Elle magazine six weeks ago, which is being published on July 17. The actress wore an unbuttoned top and showed her bra for the cover photograph, in what has been seen as a rebellion against her husband. "I feel sexier," she told the magazine.

Marty Rathbun, a critic of Scientology who left the organisation in 2004, said the church was beginning a fightback. He revealed a leaked email detailing how members could "stand up and defend our religion on the internet".