Leah Remini is taking her decade-long fight with the Church of Scientology to court, claiming she's been subject to "harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and defamation."
On Wednesday, Aug. 2, the former "The King of Queens" actress announced that she had filed a lawsuit against the controversial church and its leader, David Miscavige.
Broadimage/Shutterstock
"While advocating for victims of Scientology has significantly impacted my life and career, Scientology's final objective of silencing me has not been achieved," she said on social media. "While this lawsuit is about what Scientology has done to me, I am one of thousands of targets of Scientology over the past seven decades. People who share what they've experienced in Scientology, and those who tell their stories and advocate for them, should be free to do so without fearing retaliation from a cult with tax exemption and billions in assets."
For much of her early life, Leah was a proponent of the church's teachings. However, she left Scientology in 2013 and has been a thorn in the church's side ever since. In 2015, she wrote "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology," a memoir that opened the lid on Scientology and its practices. From 2016 to 2019, she also hosted a documentary series called "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath." In that series, she highlighted those who left the church and claimed they, like her, were harassed.
In her social media announcement, she wrote, "The press has a right to report about Scientology without facing a sophisticated intelligence operation from Scientology to destroy their personal lives and their careers. Law enforcement authorities have a right to investigate crimes in Scientology without fear that they will lose their jobs. Children, mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles have a right to request welfare checks on their family members without fear of an operation activated against them by Scientology for doing so. Those in the entertainment business should have a right to tell jokes and stories without facing an operation from Scientology which uses its resources in Hollywood to destroy their lives and careers."
Leah hopes to "speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology without fear of vicious and vindictive retribution," she penned, adding that "most have no way to fight back."
