Joanne Remembers “Shock” of Leah Remini’s Treatment of Child, Friends

TRANSCRIPT:

I first knew Leah through her mom, Vicki Marshall, and her stepdad, George Marshall. So, you know, I was involved with consulting Vicki what to do. And then we got friendly and I would, you know, be invited over to her house and she would invite me over to Leah’s house. Or once we went to a showing when they were filming King of Queens, and so we were at the house many times.

Leah’s mom, Vicki, was a very domineering New Yorker, okay. She was also very critical and sharp and if she didn’t like something, you know, you were going to know about it. And her husband, George Marshall, who I believe raised Leah most of her life, he wasn’t her father, so he was her stepdad. It was kind of like a wild relationship because it was kind of like Vicki and Leah against George, you know. And there was always, you know, every other day Vicki was going to divorce George. And Leah—I’d hear this from Vicki—Leah couldn’t stand George and didn’t understand, you know, what was going on. And apparently a lot of the money that they needed or used came from Leah. It was a very, very strange relationship, like mother and daughter against husband.

Leah was a very direct, almost antagonistic—she was like what you think of as a New Yorker, not that different than the character she played on King of Queens. So she could be like, you know, cutting and sharp. She could also be, you know, very warm and very generous at times and she’d make you comfortable. And she was like that up to a certain point and then she switched, you know. It was like a 180 degree turn. She just became sort of like a magnet for bad stuff, she just became very negative about Scientology and about most everything. I mean, she became a complainer.

One time I was at the house and I was in absolute shock. Leah was talking to another friend of mine and it was a very heated conversation. So I played with Sofia, she was on the trampoline, and Leah would be like, “Get out of there! Move back! Stop that!” And I just couldn’t believe how she was treating her daughter.

And I was just very embarrassed that she would do that with her daughter and I felt horrible for the kid. I didn’t—you know, I thought it would have a very bad effect on Sofia.

Leah had an assistant who—they were like best friends, forever. And then one day Leah up and fired her. And this assistant went through hell because Leah would not talk to her, you know, there was no way of having a conversation and coming to terms with it. And this went on ad infinitum. In other words, this girl, this assistant, who she fired, who’d been her best friend, to this day has no clue what happened.