Leah Remini is continuing her crusade to expose her former religion with her new A&E docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. Her new show is set to premiere on Tuesday, November 29 and the former King of Queens actress took part in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session where she revealed some shocking details about the church.
Remini spent about 30 years as a member of the Church of Scientology. She joined the religion with her mother Vicki Marshall shortly after Vicki’s divorce from her husband, Us Weekly reported. But after enduring many years of frustrating interactions with fellow practitioners (including celebrity members like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes) and church elders, the 46-year-old actress left Scientology in 2013 along with her mother, her husband Angelo Pagan and their 12-year-old daughter Sofia Bella Pagan.
Now, the former star of TLC’s reality TV series Leah Remini: It’s All Relative, is the executive producer of A&E’s new eight-part series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, and she took to Reddit to answer some questions about the religion and the docuseries. Here are some of the most shocking details about her experience with the church.
One Reddit user asked Leah if there are any sexual abuse cases within in the church, and she explained one specific situation she recalled from when she was a teenager.
“When I was 16 and working for a “senior Scientologist” who was in his late 30’s, he had sex with a 16 year old friend of ours. And the “Church” handled it internally. All abuses are dealt within the “Church” as it is an enemy act in the “Church” to prosecute another member,” Leah wrote on Reddit.
The church is notorious for punishing its members for breaking the rules of the religion, and another user asked Leah what type of “corrective actions” the church would take against those rule breakers.
“The most abusive thing that I’ve experienced is seeing the victims being further victimized by an organization that claims these things did not take place… from physical, to sexual, to mental abuse,” she wrote.
Follow my journey on @AETV’s new docuseries Leah Remini: #ScientologyTheAftermath, premiering tomorrow at 10/9c. pic.twitter.com/E6VU70zQPJ
— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) November 28, 2016
Another user asked if she is still in contact with any of her friends or family members who are still members of the church. Leah explained that since she is labeled an SP or “suppressive person” by the church, they are not allowed to have any contact with her.
She also revealed that the church’s parishioners believe that actor Tom Cruise is the “Messiah” of the religion, and that she had spent millions of dollars in order to remain in good standing with the church before she decided to leave.
“When you reach the top of The Bridge (OTP 8) you will be told that God is a lie for LRH, and there are more levels ahead, that will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Leah explained. “There is no end to Scientology.”
Photo credits: Leah Remini/Instagram, Leah Remini/Twitter
