Alan Sawyer
At any point in her career, Leah Remini had previously been involved in a big project. That dried up when she left Church of Scientology.
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Her most “recent” project — that wasn’t a TV movie — was the sitcom Kevin Can Wait on CBS with King of the Hill co-star Kevin James. In 2018. By way of films, she was in Old School, Second Act, and mystery comedy Handsome. She also previously co-hosted on the daytime talk show, The Talk. Remini brought her family to work at one point for her reality show, “Leah Remini: It’s All Relative.”
She’s won two primetime Emmy Award for her nonfiction series.
George Remini vs. The Church of Scientology:
It is fairly public knowledge that Remini and her estranged, late father, George Remini, had a falling out. He, like her, had been a member of the church of Scientology. While Leah Remini left Scientology in 2013 and became a “suppressive person” (like Tom Cruise’s ex-wife, Katie Holmes), her father had not. She began talking about it in an A&E documentary series called “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” which is now on Netflix. This project won her an Emmy award. She claimed that his connection with the church was part of why he had died suspiciously in 2019. The former Scientologist reviewed the situation and their relationship in her book, published in 2015 called “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.” Apparently, her father had been very ill. Remini blames the church of Scientology for her father not opening up about his illness. She said:
“We had no idea that he had died a month ago. We weren’t aware that he had been sick…A funeral came and went, and none of us knew anything about it.”
Neither she nor her sister, Nicole, got to say goodbye to their father. The Church took to social media to say that she was wrong about the church being involved. In other claims regarding the Church, Remini says that Tom Cruise is becoming the new David Miscavige, the Scientology founder.
Family Life:
Leah Remini is married to Angelo Pagan, a fellow actor known for Hawthorne and Swordfish. The couple has a daughter who is 13-years old, Sofia Bella Pagan. Bella, who was then 9 years old, was one reason the star left the church. She is now 13 years old, and her mom is doing everything to keep her safe and out of any life destructive paths and connections. One of the reasons Remini left the church was because she was telling her daughter “family first,” but while she was a member of the church of Scientology, she was living contradictorily. Since her separation from the church, she has lived a more consistent life, and her daughter has since been baptized. She gives special thanks to her best friend, Jennifer Lopez, for encouraging her to live life the way she needed and for supporting her through the mess of the separation.
