Leah Remini’s Tragic Life Story
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Leah Remini found worldwide fame thanks to her role as Carrie Heffernan in the CBS sitcom “The King of Queens.” But despite her success, and strong bond with co-star Kevin James, who she says “ruined her for life” with his great acting chops, the actor hasn’t led a totally charmed life. Remini was brought into the complicated world of Scientology when she was just a child and made the difficult decision to leave the church in her adulthood. These days, Remini is largely known as one of the most outspoken critics of the religion, working on anti-Scientology podcasts and TV shows. Taking this path hasn’t been easy for the star, who has had to cope with a lot of backlash from strangers, fans, and people she once called friends.
Besides this, Remini has also faced a lot of personal tragedies over the years. Though we may think the life of a Hollywood icon is relatively smooth sailing, Remini has always been honest about her struggles. Let’s take a look at just how turbulent the life of this sitcom alum has been. But be warned: There are no laughs in this story.
Leah Remini’s relationship with her father wasn’t exactly copasetic. Though her parents were together when Leah and her siblings were very young, it wasn’t built to last. Along with her mother and sisters, Leah moved to Florida to live at the Church of Scientology headquarters in Clearwater, but at that point her parents, Vicki Marshall and George Remini, had already split up. When replying to a tweet in 2017, the actor bluntly said: “My real dad left his wife and young daughters with no care, no child support & was physically and mentally abusive to my sisters. Now what?”
The rift continued over the years, and Leah even voiced the opinion that the Church of Scientology recruited her father after she left, in a bid to use him against her — something the institution firmly denies. When her father died in 2019, Leah shared a photograph of herself and her siblings with her father as kids. In the caption, she claimed that she and her sisters only found out about George’s death by accident, a month after it had happened. “A funeral came and went and none of us knew anything about it,” she wrote. “We were not able to say goodbye. He was not able to redeem himself, to ask for forgiveness for his failures and hurts, to become a better man to those of us who couldn’t help but love him.”
The stunning transformation of Leah Remini didn’t happen overnight. Her evolution from an unknown youngster to a successful actor and ex-Scientologist has been a wild ride. For Remini, her path to fame and fortune wasn’t a fairytale story. When she was just a child, she moved to Florida without her father, alongside her mom and sisters. Her stepdad was the driving force behind the move, though it’s interesting to note that her mom’s husband never ended up following the family. She told BuzzFeed in an interview that life got substantially worse when they left New York.
“We went from a middle-class lifestyle [in Brooklyn, N.Y.] to living in a roach-infested motel with six other girls off a freeway in Clearwater,” she explained. “We were separated from our mother. We had to sign billion-year contracts we didn’t understand. And we kept saying, ‘Why are you doing this to us? Why are we here?'” The actor went on to reveal that the family’s new life was no walk in the park. She and her sisters were expected to work for the church instead of attending a conventional school. Eventually, the Reminis moved away from the Scientology headquarters to Los Angeles, though they remained active members of the church.
It took Leah Remini a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to break into Hollywood. She began to take auditions as a teenager and though she had some success in her early years with roles on shows such as “Head of the Class” and “Living Dolls,” Remini didn’t really hit pay dirt until she landed the iconic role of brassy Carrie Heffernan, wife of Kevin James’ character Doug in the sitcom “The King of Queens.” Something about the couple struck a chord with audiences and the CBS vehicle became a runaway hit. Despite Remini’s fears that the show would be canceled like many of her previous projects, the series was still going strong by 2006.
However, this time, it wasn’t the network that decided the jig was up, but Remini’s co-star. James had had enough of playing the character and decided he wanted to leave. Simply put, without him there was no show. Though Remini understood, it dealt a devastating blow. “There are no words to describe it,” she told BuzzFeed in her 2014 interview. “Kevin loved the show, but his film career was taking off and he didn’t want it to end up being the show that trickled off … I’m still mourning that loss. I can’t really watch the reruns because I still feel that show in my bones.”
Why Leah Remini left “The Talk” may still be difficult for some fans to comprehend, though it’s been years since the actor departed the popular show. While some stars who have appeared in the series thoroughly enjoyed their experience, Remini has a slightly different point of view. After “King of Queens” ended, Remini found herself with a potentially good deal on her hands. CBS executives struck her a bargain: be a star on the first season of their new panel show and get to produce your own shows for the network. It was a no-brainer for Remini. However, the show turned out to be vastly different from what Remini expected.
She told BuzzFeed in 2014, “I get [to ‘The Talk’] and I’m thinking, ‘It’s important to understand why these guests are worth talking to,’ but no one else gave a s***.” Ultimately, Remini’s desire to turn the project into something a little more serious didn’t go down well with the other stars, and rumors of high tensions began to circulate in the press. Ultimately, Remini and fellow co-host Holly Robinson Peete were ousted. Even though the situation was less than ideal, Remini says it taught her a lot. In the same interview, she explained, “Sometimes heart and passion don’t actually get you far and good intentions are not always rewarded.”
Leaving Scientology was important for Leah Remini. In 2013, Page Six broke the news that the actor had finally left the controversial church behind, after coming up against the church’s leader David Miscavige. Remini reportedly asked about the whereabouts of Miscavige’s wife Shelly. The star’s interest ruffled feathers and tensions rose between herself and other members, causing her to exit. As the years ticked by, Remini became a very vocal critic of Scientology practices, even though she received an enormous amount of backlash from others for her departure. Interestingly, Remini said that she first turned to other Scientologists to try and change certain things before she chose to leave, but they opted not to.
“They only cared that their lives would be disrupted if they stood with me,” she told BuzzFeed. “They didn’t care about doing the right thing. That showed me everything the Church taught me was a lie.” Other high-profile Scientologists took to the media to trash Remini for leaving, and at the time of writing in 2024, she still lives with the repercussions of her decision.
Content retrieved from: https://www.thelist.com/1688407/leah-remini-tragic-life-details/.
