Tom Cruise Settles $50 Million Libel Lawsuit Over 'Abandoned' Suri

The war is over ... Tom Cruise has settled his epic $50 million libel suit against a magazine publisher that accused him of abandoning his daughter Suri ... and part of the settlement included a carefully-worded apology.

The terms of the settlement are sealed. Each side will pay its own legal fees.

Part of the deal was that the defendants issue the following statement: "Bauer Publishing, 'In Touch' and 'Life and Style' never intended to communicate that Tom Cruise had cut off all ties and abandoned his daughter Suri and regret if anyone drew that inference from anything they published."

As we reported ... Cruise sued Bauer Media Group last year over a cover story that appeared in Life & Style magazine claiming he had "abandoned" his then-6-year-old daughter Suri in the wake of his divorce from Katie Holmes.

The conflict was pretty insane -- you'll recall, Tom sat for a deposition in the lawsuit and compared acting to fighting in Afghanistan.