Tom Cruise’s lawyer has threatened the National Enquirer with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over a new issue asserting it has details of the actor’s recent split with wife Katie Holmes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The website posted a letter from Tom Cruise’s Los Angeles attorney, Bert Fields, in which he blasts American Media Inc, parent of the National Enquirer, for what he calls “false and vicious lies”.

Bert Fields went on to add that the “lies” will cause “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages to Tom Cruise.

“As you were notified in advance, your current issue of National Enquirer makes numerous false and defamatory assertions about our client Tom Cruise,” the three-page letter begins.

Tom Cruise's lawyer has threatened the National Enquirer with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over a new issue asserting it has details of the actor's recent split with Katie Holmes

The letter draws attention to disparaging descriptions of Tom Cruise in the Enquirer‘s issue that hit newsstands on Wednesday.

Bert Fields wrote: “These are all lies – vicious, hurtful, damaging lies.”

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have been the subject of hundreds of headlines worldwide since she filed for divorce from the actor two weeks ago, seeking sole custody of their six-year-old daughter, Suri.

Earlier this week, the couple agreed to a divorce and custody arrangement, but details were undisclosed.

Both have remained publicly silent about the issue, except for one joint statement in which they said they were working together to settle their differences in the best interest of Suri.

Speculation about a reason for the split has centered on Tom Cruise’s membership in the Church of Scientology, but that has never been confirmed by either the couple or their representatives.