Leah Remini’s Father Responds: The Truth “Has Got to Come Out”

TRANSCRIPT:

This is a Father’s Day tweet, I guess from Leah, obviously, praising Angelo Pagán as being “The daddy to my daughter I wish I had.”

Well, I think I was more of a father to them [Leah and her sister] than anybody. And for her to say that—in her article—that I didn’t pay child support, I didn’t do this, I didn’t do that, is kind of ridiculous because she doesn’t even know half of it.

Bottom line is when I was married to Vicki [Leah’s mother], Vicki was actually a tramp. She was going out with this—she was going out with this guy while she was married to me. And we lived—we lived in Brooklyn—Bensonhurst, at the time. And Vicki and her girlfriend, Pat, supposedly got jobs at Korvettes—that was a department store in Brooklyn.

And all the while she was dating this guy, Vito. I was home watching the kids and thinking that she was working and all that. But obviously she wasn’t working in that way. And I took care of them as best I could. I never mentally or physically abused them. You know, I was the one—I’m not playing the victim—but I was the one that was being hurt by this. And that eventually led to Vicki and I becoming separated. And if I wasn’t paying child support, how did they live? How was the rent being paid? You know, I did what I had to do for them. I’d pick them up on Sundays and Saturdays and take them out. And I thought I was being a good father.

Okay, getting back to Angelo, the father of the year—of course I say that sarcastically—when he met Leah, he left his wife and children to fend for themselves because he didn’t have a job. He had nothing. He just had Leah. And then Leah wound up paying child support and alimony for Angelo.

So, how could you say I’m not a good father when I did pay what I had to pay? And then when we got—when Vicki and I got divorced, we were in the courtroom and she said that she didn’t want anything from me. She said, “I don’t want any more money from you.” You know, this and that, bla-bla-bla. I said, “Okay, you know, fine.” Then she went on to meet Dennis [Leah’s stepfather] who moved in with Vicki and the kids.

But I used to get calls from Nicole [Leah’s sister] telling me that Dennis is pulling the scabs off her arm. And I used to go over there, you know, to confront him and then she says, “Oh, I just made it up.” You know, I says, “Well why you making up things? That’s a terrible thing to say about a person.” But, it went on.

These are my children. And no matter what you say about me mentally or physically abusing you, I think you’re out of your mind. Because it never happened.

You know, everything I’ve said is in black and white. There’s no—no making up anything. And I had to live through it. And it hurt me a lot. I mean, I didn’t want to marry Vicki. But she was pregnant with Nicole. So, back in the day, when you, you know, get kids, that’s what you do. You marry the person.

You know, you’re [Leah] saying that I abandoned you when you and your sister—and your mother at the time—abandoned me. I offered you to stay with me—whether you wanted to or not for whatever reason. But you made up your mind to go to Clearwater, go to California, where I couldn’t follow.

I think Vicki is on Leah’s payroll, too. Vicki and George [Leah’s stepfather] and Angelo, everybody in that whole crew, including Shannon [Leah’s half-sister]—they’re all getting money from Leah. She’s got the whole crew living with her. You know, all the now-defunct Scientologists are living with her.

I feel like Leah made Vicki sign a non-disclosure. She did that to Dana and I, my present wife. We went out there to visit and she wanted us to sign a non-disclosure form. So I was like, “What? I’m your father. What—what am I going to tell people? You know, I kept quiet about everything.” You know, now, today it’s got to come out, got to come out.