Tom Cruise has filed a $50m lawsuit against an entertainment magazine publisher for articles that said he has abandoned his youngest child, an attorney for the actor has said.

Cruise, 50, is suing Bauer Media Group, the publisher of In Touch and Life & Style magazines, in federal court for articles that claimed he had abandoned six-year-old Suri Cruise in the months since his divorce from Katie Holmes.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, refers to two cover stories published by the magazines in July and September with the headlines "Abandoned by Daddy" and "Abandoned by her dad".

Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields said the Mission: Impossible star does not like to file lawsuits, but the tales of abandonment were a lie.

"Tom is a caring father who dearly loves Suri," Mr Fields said in a statement. "She's a vital part of his life and always will be."

"To say he has 'abandoned' her is a vicious lie. To say it in lurid headlines with a tearful picture of Suri is reprehensible."

Mr Fields said Cruise would donate any money awarded as a result of the lawsuit to charity.

Holmes, 33, filed for divorce in June after six years of marriage, and the split was finalised in August.

Source: Press Release