Tom Cruise will hit back and file for divorce from Katie Holmes in California.

Holmes filed for divorce from the Rock of Ages star in New York after five years of marriage, and while Cruise is "deeply saddened" by her decision to call it quits, it is believed that he will now fight back and ask for proceedings to be continued in Los Angeles – where they are normally based.

It has also been reported that he will ask joint custody of the couple's six-year-old daughter Suri, challenging Holmes' request for sole custody of the little girl.

A source told  Radar Online: "Tom will file a response in New York, asking that the divorce proceedings be halted in the Big Apple because California is the proper venue for the matter to proceed. Team Cruise is going to assert that Katie doesn't meet the residency requirements to file in New York, and that both live full-time in California, specifically Los Angeles.

"At the same time, Tom will file for divorce in California, and will most [likely] request joint custody of Suri. There is absolutely no way that he is going let Katie have sole custody. The lines are being drawn, and this is going shape up to be a very contentious custody battle."

Holmes – who has spent most of the last few months living in the couple's New York home with Suri – is thought to have filed for divorce in the state because she has a better chance of gaining sole custody of Suri there.

However, lawyers for Cruise — who also has two children, Isabella (18) and 17-year-old Connor, with ex-wife Nicole Kidman — will claim that 33-year-old Holmes has no legal right to want the proceedings to happen in New York.

The source added: "Tom's lawyers will state in their response to Katie's divorce petition in New York that she didn't reside continuously in New York for a year, as the law states. Yes, they do have a home in New York, but Tom will argue that Los Angeles is where they live, period."

Cruise and Holmes tied the knot in Italy in November 2006, and despite the 49-year-old Mission: Impossible star's recent claims that they were still happily married, sources say that Holmes had wanted to end the marriage for "months".

Sources claim that she was afraid she was "turning into a robot" while married to Cruise, and had grown tired of his "suffocating" behaviour".

Holmes was also said to be concerned about raising their daughter as a Scientologist – part of the controversial religion that counts Cruise as one of its biggest followers.

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