Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes pictured during their 2006 wedding
The 'Top Gun' star was said to have been "blindsided" when his spouse announced she wanted to end their five-year-marriage in June, but papers obtained by National Enquirer magazine show their union had been in trouble for some time.

In the legal documents - dated August 17, 2012 and signed by New York State Supreme Court Judge Matthew F. Cooper - which detail specifics of the divorce decree, they state that the "marital relationship" had "broken down irretrievably for a period of at least six months immediately preceding".

The pair tied the knot in a lavish Scientology ceremony in Italy on November 18 2006, but the documents show they officially married "in a civil ceremony" in Los Angeles on November 11, 2006.

The documents reveal Tom was ordered to pay $400,000 a year in child support for the couple's six-year-old daughter Suri.

The staggering sum is to cover the youngster's "medical, dental, insurance, unreimbursed medical and dental, education, college, extracurricular and camp expenses".

The agreement ends when Suri turns 18.

In the unlikely event the actor misses a payment; he will be faced with a jail sentence "for a term not to exceed six months".