Stepmother Relates Why Leah Left the Church of Scientology, Took Her Family

Leah Remini’s stepmother offers her observations on why the actress, out of a job, left the Church of Scientology and took her family with her.

TRANSCRIPT:

Leah, I think she’s just off the wall right now, because—listen to me—she, I guess, chose this route. But the anger—I think a lot of her attitude anger, like, “Shut the f—k up,” that kind of thing—I think a lot of that anger was possibly kept in better check when she was a member, alright.

I mean, I really thought about this as you can hear, but I think…the phone stopped ringing. And that’s it in a nutshell, in a nutshell. You know, and that show was all—and I knew it immediately, alright. Because as soon as that show stopped being—that was it. That was your one and only big career move. You’re not made for the big screen, you’re typecast, okay, and you’re older now. So, where’re you going to go?

She could have gotten herself a skill set. You know, pick something you like doing and, while you’re being an actress, be another person. It only stands to reason. And you did nothing else in your whole life to fall back on.

I also think that after thinking a certain way for 35 years [as a Scientologist], you don’t change overnight. You don’t change—you can’t change your thinking overnight if you believed this and now you no longer believe it, your head’s got to be twisted.

So, you know, the whole thing when it happened, I was like, “What?” because all of them were singing the praises of the Church. So I had no idea, you know, I was like, “What the hell! What happened?”

So, let’s be serious. Why didn’t you just deal with it the way you’ve been dealing with it your whole life that I know you? You know, you relied on the Church and you weren’t cut off from me. And they never cut her off from her father. But so then…it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t, you know, it just doesn’t make sense.

I mean, I know Leah, she didn’t do anything that she didn’t agree to. The whole family agreed and were members of the Church. You went along with the Church’s teachings, which I do as a Catholic, okay. But, nobody drags me to Church on Sunday, alright. Nobody dragged her there. I mean, she was very, very involved. She was very involved. And it was good for her career. Nobody dragged them there.

I can’t believe it. I really—believe me, Leah put everybody from the Church first. Always. If her and I discussed anything and there was that kind of an iffy question about it, she relied on the Church to advise her, before anything. So, why did you turn on everybody? You left, they threw you out, what happened? And why did everybody have to go with you? So Leah, are you feeling guilty for that too? Because—think about it, are you feeling guilty for that too? You know, because you have to. You have to.

But, you know, I said, “Why did she change?” You had 35 years to make up your mind. You know, I’m not saying I agree with it, but you had 35 years to make up your mind. So like…where did this come from?

And it could very well be finances. It could very well be, you know, because…because the phone stopped ringing. That’s what it is: The phone stopped ringing.