GLAMOUR: Still, you've come into your own. In a recent interview you said, "I'm a bit wiser." How?

KATIE HOLMES: Well, becoming a mother has been the most amazing experience—in an instant you become strong. You have to be a little bit wiser; it's the most important job in the world.

GLAMOUR: Did it scare you at all? The responsibility?

KATIE HOLMES: Of course. During the first couple of days [with Suri], we would just sleep right next to her to make sure she was breathing. And I was constantly learning on the job, but Tom was very helpful and supportive.

GLAMOUR: You are very protective of your family. You've said a couple of times [in response to various rumors about her relationship with Cruise, a practicing Scientologist, and speculation that Suri didn't exist] that all of the gossip is "not OK."

KATIE HOLMES: Some of the stuff [people said] was such absolutely horrible things to say about a child. It was so uncalled for and so disgusting. Enough is enough.

GLAMOUR: Did Tom ever say, "Don't worry about it" [since he was more used to media scrutiny]?

KATIE HOLMES: Yes. We were changing diapers. He said, "I don't want you to get upset." And I said, "Well, I am upset." So we approached it together. But I definitely felt like—as a woman, as the mother of Suri—I want to handle this! My mom is very strong, and if anyone ever said anything about any of us, she would be, "Excuse me? That's my family!"

GLAMOUR: As you know, the rumor right now is that you are pregnant!

KATIE HOLMES: Well, I'm not pregnant right now.

GLAMOUR: The people who print stuff like that…if you could say something to them, what would it be?

KATIE HOLMES: Sometimes I think I would say, "Why don't you come over and have dinner? See what there is to see."

GLAMOUR: And what would they see? What's a day in the life of Katie, Tom and Suri?

KATIE HOLMES: We're all together. We like to be together, so we use the house for our [business] meetings. [We] play Yahtzee, board games, Scrabble. We grill; have pool parties. We play "The Three Little Pigs" and Suri is the Big Bad Wolf. [Tom] reads storybooks to Suri, and we all laugh. When a good song comes on, he'll break out in a dance. We'll watch movies in bed—recently Madagascar and Cinderella, for Suri. We really have a good time.

GLAMOUR: Who cooks? You or Tom?

KATIE HOLMES: I don't really cook that much—eventually I will. I do make cupcakes. And [Tom] makes his pasta carbonara for me. He knows exactly how to do it: a pinch of this, a pinch of that. He has a recipe, but he also kind of [improvises] by himself. You have to do the egg at a certain time. He did it once when we were camping.

GLAMOUR: The media's had this perception that you were going to be overwhelmed by Tom's life. Did you ever think that perception was off or did you just not pay attention to it?

KATIE HOLMES: From an early age I knew that I wanted to be in this business. So I did everything I could to get here, and when I met Tom, I knew in an instant that we were going to be together, that we were going to get married. He does have a very big life. And you know, we just do it. And, as a woman, you make that transition from being single to [being] a partner. I have a teammate, and it's like, we're going to make this work.