Thanks to Leah Remini’s shocking tell-all, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, the Church of Scientology and its famous members such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kirstie Alley, are once again in the news. King of Queens star Remini joins a boldfaced group of celebrities who have left the faith — including Cruise’s ex-wives Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes.
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After meeting Cruise in 2005, Holmes converted to the religion shortly thereafter ahead of their 2006 wedding. "You know, it’s really exciting,” Holmes told W magazine in 2005 about the process. “I just started auditing and I’m taking some courses, and I really like it. I feel it’s really helping.” Following their 2012 divorce, Holmes parted ways with the church.
Along with Holmes and Kidman (who similarly quit the church following her divorce from Cruise in 2001), Remini, director Paul Haggis, and actor Jason Beghe made headlines for parting ways with the controversial church.
Leah Remini
Credit: Fred Lee/ABC via Getty Images
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Haggis, who penned the Oscar-winning screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, left the church after 35 years in 2009 because of their stance on same-sex marriage and Proposition 8. "I was ashamed of my own stupidity, of how I'd been, could have been so purposely blind for so many years," Haggis told Rock Center's Harry Smith during a 2013 interview.
Beghe also exited the church after 14 years in 2008. The Chicago P.D. actor said in an interview with Fox News that same year that “Scientoloy delivers what it promises under the guise of tearing away falsity, neuroses, psychoses. It creates a brainwashed, robotic version of you.”
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Remini, who quit in July 2013, explained during an interview with 20/20 on Oct. 30 that when you decide to leave the church, “you’re giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life.” Her new tell-all book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, details alleged shocking accounts of the church.
The church has vehemently denied Haggis, Beghe, and [now most recently, Remini’s claims. In a statement, they slammed the actress, calling her “a shallow, spoiled individual” who is “pathetically exploiting her former religion, her former friends and other celebrities for money and attention to appear relevant again.” Read their full statement here.
Watch the video above to see who still belongs to the Church of Scientology and who has quit.
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