Truth behind Katie Holmes’ new man who saved ‘iced out’ actress from the trauma of ‘life-shattering’ Tom Cruise marriage

IT was written all over Katie Holmes’s face as she arrived at the Calvin Klein show at this month’s New York Fashion Week.
The reason for the actress’s mega-watt smile? The man on her arm, artist Jason Bard Yarmosky, whom Holmes, 47, has been dating since the start of the summer – and helped her get over the trauma of her doomed marriage to Tom Cruise.
Holmes and her new man, 39, attended four major fashion week events together, each time carefully co-ordinating their outfits – which in Hollywood terms says far more about relationship status than you might think.
Their romance has been the talk of New York society this summer, since they were first spotted in the Hamptons together in early July.
Handsome Jason is something of a name himself, building 40,000 followers on Instagram where he shares his work.
A source tells The Sun that he and Holmes have fallen for one another – fast – and that engagement may well be the next move.
“They have become close very quickly,” says the source.
“Something about Jason’s sense of self and passion for what he does really pulled Katie into his orbit and they’ve become inseparable. They are very much in love.”
They reportedly first met at a Tribeca Festival dinner in June, where Yarmosky had been selected for the festival’s Artist Awards Programme which was presented by Chanel.
They immediately bonded, says a source, over their “shared creativity”, with Holmes impressed by his work and his “quietly confident” energy.
Yarmosky is certainly cool, becoming something of a power player on the New York art scene, recently creating work for a special exhibition at iconic department store Bergdorf Goodman.
His website describes his paintings and drawings as centring around “themes of aging, time and memory” with a lot of his recent work inspired by his grandparents.
They made their relationship Instagram official this month, and shared sizzling photos from a trip they took to Lake Como in Italy as a collab post, the ultimate new power couple move.
Our source said that the trip was a huge step for them, and their electric connection was plain to see in the series of bikini photos as they enjoyed a boat trip on the lake.
Her friend Amy Astley, the former Vogue editor, commented that she was “glowing”.
“For Katie to make this romance so public is very telling,” said one friend.
“She has deliberately kept her romantic life under wraps for decades.”
Indeed, Holmes’s only long term relationship since her high-profile divorce from Tom Cruise, after almost six years of marriage, was with Jamie Foxx.
They were said to have dated for five years and in that time they were photographed together out in public only a handful of times.
In 2019, there were two – very rare – public appearances, first at the Clive Davis and Recording Academy Pre-Grammy Gala, then at the Met Gala.
A few months later, the romance was said to be over – and Holmes hasn’t found a great love again, until now, despite being linked fleetingly to chef Emilio Vitolo Jr. in 2020 and musician Bobby Wooten III in 2022.
“Things feel very different for Katie now,” said the source.
“For the first time since splitting from Tom, she wants to show the world how in love she is.”
And she certainly is – so much so that rumours are circulating that the pair could even be heading for engagement.
“It’s been a complete whirlwind,” said one Hollywood source.
“Katie’s friends and – most importantly – her parents Martin and Kathleen, all approve of the relationship. It is a big deal that they are together so publicly, it says a lot about where they are at.”
Holmes has been notoriously private about every aspect of her life since her extremely high profile marriage, and subsequent divorce from Tom Cruise – something which left her feeling “shaken” and “cautious about living in the spotlight” said sources at the time.
It has been almost twenty years since the pair married in a lavish Italian wedding, at Bracciano’s 15th-century Odescalchi Castle – a celebration that reportedly cost them upwards of $3 million and included a performance by Andrea Bocelli.
Their relationship had been a whirlwind, from meeting in 2004, to getting engaged in 2005 and having their only child Suri in April 2006, just seven months prior to the wedding, the pair became a Hollywood power couple – known as TomKat – in record time.
She told W magazine, “I’ve found the man of my dreams”.
But their downfall was almost as dramatic as the couch-jumping which defined the start of the romance.
Holmes filed for divorce from Tom Cruise in 2012 after nearly six years of marriage through a carefully planned, covert exit from the relationship.
The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that the couple had been at loggerheads about Scientology, the controversial religion of which Cruise has been a prominent member for over 40 years, calling it a “beautiful religion”.
He said in 2016, “It’s something that has helped me incredibly in my life.”
He added, “It’s something, you know, without it, I wouldn’t be where I am. So it’s a beautiful religion. I’m incredibly proud.”
Reports revealed that Holmes and Cruise had disagreements over how the couple’s daughter, Suri, would be raised, with Holmes wanting to raise Suri away from Scientology.
During a court case in 2013, Cruise confirmed that it was “one of the assertions” made by his ex-wife which led to their split.
Following the split, Holmes was granted custody of Suri and they set up home in New York where they lived an exceptionally quiet life.
Cruise was last photographed with his daughter, now 20 and attending Pennsylvania’s Carnegie Mellon University, in 2012 and she is said to have dropped his last name going instead by Suri Noelle, her mother’s middle name, in a recent Edinburgh Festival performance.
“They don’t have any kind of relationship,” a source has said of Suri and Cruise. “She was raised by Katie. They are incredibly close.”
Prior to her marriage Holmes had been riding high in her career which started with hit teen show Dawson’s Creek, and had just starred in Batman Begins in 2005.
Following their dramatic split, however, Holmes found herself somewhat “iced out of Hollywood”, says one industry insider.
Two years ago Holmes admitted: “Do I have 20 scripts at my door, all with the green light? No. Would that make life easier? Yes.”
Her most notable role in the post-Cruise years was as Jaqueline Kennedy in the TV miniseries The Kennedys, but the big blockbuster offers dried up.
Two years ago, she made a splash on Broadway with director Kenny Leon’s revival of Our Town.
Since then Holmes has been busy stepping back into the spotlight.
She has written and directed new romcom Happy Hours, in which she also stars alongside her former Dawson’s Creek co-star – and ex-boyfriend – Joshua Jackson.
She said earlier this year that “working with Josh again was a dream.”
Their friendship, which has been renewed in recent years after going no-contact while Holmes was married to Cruise, has been a huge part of Holmes’s “finding herself” again, our source tells us.
“With Josh, Katie can be herself,” they revealed. “He’s known her since they were kids. He’s encouraged her to find her voice artistically and also lean into being in the spotlight once again.”
And Holmes is certainly doing that, with more public appearances with her new man this year than we’ve seen since she was with Cruise, and a renewed spotlight on her life and career which she appears to be enjoying.
“Katie is happy and confident in who she is in a way that felt impossible even ten years ago,” said our source.
“Going through such a high profile divorce from someone who is so powerful, like Tom Cruise, was a life-shattering thing for her. It’s taken time but Katie feels free – and Jason is a big part of that.”
As Holmes said two years ago: “I’m adamant about having a life and not letting this industry dictate decisions as simple as what I wear or as complicated as what I do.”
She added, “You don’t want to be afraid of anything, right?”
It looks like Katie Holmes is really living by those words.


