J-Lo was the daughter of a Scientologist, and the church hoped to use the Cruise wedding to recruit the singer/actress. The "Mission Impossible" star even pressured Remini to invite her pal Lopez and husband Marc Anthony, according to the book. 

 Following Leah Remini’s 20/20 interview about leaving Scientology, her husband is speaking out in support of her. 
 
 Angelo Pagan took to Twitter to respond to some fan comments about the ABC special, which aired Friday night. 
 
 
 
 WATCH: Leah Remini Opens Up About Tom Cruise's Role in Scientology 
 
 
 
 "Free at last free at last thank god almighty..." Pagan tweeted. 
 
 Free at last free at last thank god almighty... https://t.co/u7a1GuFCMb — angelo pagan (@apangelo) October 31, 2015 
 
 Remini's husband even shared a post on Instagram, saying how proud he was of his wife of 12 years, with whom he shares an 11-year-old daughter, Sophia. "Brave, bold, and beautiful," he captioned the throwback photo, posted Friday. "I got your back baby!! #troublemaker." 
 
 
 
 NEWS: 8 Burning Questions We Have after Watching HBO's Scientology Doc, 'Going Clear' 
 
 
 
 In her interview, Remini explained some of the inner-workings of Scientology and her experience in the church, which prompted more people than just Pagan to post messages on social media. 
 
 Kirstie Alley, a very vocal Scientologist, retweeted a cryptic message that was originally posted by fellow church member, Jenna Elfman. 
 
 “What is important to me? I give a damn about making the world a better place,” Elfman's post read. “I care about seeing others smile with genuine happiness. I think the world needs more of that. I’m not interested in sensationalism. I’m interested in seeing other people do well. And spreading kindness, warmth and sincerity. I never forget to appreciate the absurd. And I find it uplifting to admire what’s right in others. I also find it pleasurable to be totally ridiculous. xo Jenna.” 
 
 The message appears to be a dig at the former King of Queens star, though there has been no confirmation as of yet. Alley has, however, spoken publicly about Remini after the 45-year-old actress left the Church of Scientology in July 2013. 
 
 "I have blocked her on Twitter," the former Kirstie star said on The Howard Stern Showtwo years ago. "She’s a bigot. ... It's not selective. I just won't have people in my life that are that. ... If somebody's sitting there badmouthing your religion and saying that it's hideous and evil, that's not going to be your friend." 
 
 Alley isn’t the only celebrity to responded to Remini’s 20/20 interview. Katie Holmes issued a statement after Remini shared an incident from her time in the church, claiming she was written up after telling Holmes and ex-husband Tom Cruise to "get a freaking room." 
 
 
 
 PHOTOS: Scientology's Most Famous Supporters and Retractors 
 
 
 
 "I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future," a rep for Holmes said in a statement to ABC News. 
 
 Watch the video below to hear more from Remini's interview, including her claim that Scientology wanted to recruit Jennifer Lopez as a member. 

 It's 7:20 AM as I write this, and I haven't slept since I started reading this book, moments after downloading it. I'm about 80% done at this point, but had to stop and post this early review (I'll update this a bit when I'm 100% done). I've never been much of a fan of sitcoms, so I'm not exactly part of the audience who has had much experience with Leah's acting work - although I knew who she was, certainly. I'd seen enough however to know I found her appealing and incredibly attractive long before I learned she'd be writing this just from what I'd seen in an episode of two of King of Queens. When I heard advance word of the release, having read just about every book there is on the subject of Scientology (from Inside Scientology, to Bare Faced Messiah, to Beyond Belief to The Unbreakable Miss Lovely), from personal accounts to journalistic exposes, I eagerly anticipated Troublemaker. The biggest surprise for me, first off, is how supremely readable "Troublemaker" is - how entertaining, honest, unpretentious, shocking and just plain funny it is. Leah has a big mouth, and she knows it, but her writing speaks directly to the reader in an open and unfiltered way that books written by celebrities rarely do. She isn't a bulls***ter, and she's not going to sugarcoat anything, including her herself. She even starts with something of a confession of past perceived sins, as she is all to aware that Scientology will strike at her as they are known to do, by using information gleaned from auditing to embarrass, intimidate and discredit. She knows she is now "fair game." Even with the little that I knew about her, her account of her early years with her family and struggles as an actress are highly entertaining, and make an honest impression that makes you feel more like a confidant than a reader. For this type of book, it is, surprisingly, very well written - free of fanciful prose, but deeply engaging, concise and highly personal. The early biographical chapters are vital, as it turns out, as it sets a very clear stage for why she was bound to one day become a monumental thorn in the side of Scientology. A theme that pops up a few times is how Leah was sometimes perceived as "lacking in class" (code sometimes used to discredit or embarrass truth tellers, female ones in particular) in comparison to the norm of perceived celebrities and society's elite. This book shows, clearly, that she has more class than the majority of Hollywood's elite put together. I can't wait to read the remaining 20%, and regardless of my ignorance of her acting career, with this book she's become one of my favorite people. If only more people in the world had the guts that Leah clearly has. More so than even the recent Going Clear documentary, this book, in my opinion, has the potential to expose Scientology for the abusive, draining, exploitative, paranoid and disingenuous organization that it has become, the Church of Cruise and Miscavige. And if you're looking for a real window into the bizarre, rarefied world of celebrity scientologists (Leah attending Tom Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes, for example, and the subsequent fallout after she is brazenly manipulated to get J Lo and Marc Anthony to attend as well, is jaw dropping) you need look no further. Highly, highly recommended. 

 Questions regarding her “TIME IN CLEARWATER�?: 
 
 Per our records, Leah Remini was dismissed from her brief stint in the Church’s religious order, the Sea Organization, for her inability to maintain the ethical standards related to fraternization with other trainees. Neither she nor her sister was in a Rehabilitation Project Force and any claims made to the contrary are false. Ms. Remini was dismissed. She petitioned to stay, promising to uphold the standards, but she was unable to. She never obtained the first status of a member of the religious order. 
 
 Ms. Remini’s characterization of her brief stint in 1984 and 1985 in Clearwater, Florida is false. During her stay, she lived in a dormitory at a converted Quality Inn motel. All crew members received three balanced meals daily. The facility received regular inspections by the Pinellas County Health Department. The daycare center was licensed by the Pinellas County Day Care Licensing Board and received routine inspections. All licenses were maintained in good standing with the health department during the entire period that Ms. Remini was in Clearwater. 
 
 You will be receiving a letter from Mike Kehrli, her supervisor in the initiation training program, denying he ever threw Ms. Remini into the ocean as she claims. Beyond the fact that this allegation is as sensationalistic as it is false, Mr. Kehrli contends and our records show the program was based on land. You should also note that Mr. Kerhli bumped into Ms. Remini in Clearwater years later, after she had become an actress, and she fondly recalled to him her time in the program. Thus, the allegations in this section are false. 
 
 Questions regarding her “LIFE IN CHURCH POST-CLEARWATER�?: 
 
 It is ridiculous for ABC to allege that Ms. Remini received a “special favor�? by being featured on the cover of a Church magazine distributed to parishioners. It is all the more ironic considering she is receiving a “special favor�? from Dan Harris who has covered her in over a dozen ABC programs since 2013 where she has spread anti-religious hate about a worldwide religion. That said, as we never considered Ms. Remini an actual Sea Org member, because she never rose above a cleaner, it would be impossible to provide the imagined “special favor.�? She never made it to any actual status in the Sea Org. Our records show Ms. Remini was featured in Celebrity Magazine in 1995 and 2002 as an up-and-coming young actress who benefited from the religion and wanted to communicate that to other Church members. In the 1995 interview she stated: “I attribute my ability to take charge of my life and my career directly to these [Scientology Life Improvement] courses. My career took off immediately.�? 
 
 Her claim regarding Church donations for religious services: 
 
 As with most religions, donations by parishioners are the primary source of financial support for Churches of Scientology. As with all religions, donations vary depending on each member’s means. Donations are designed to (a) provide funds for further dissemination and growth of the religion as a whole; (b) assure that the Churches and Missions that minister to their parishioners remain viable and capable of expanding; (c) make Scientology religious materials available to the average person; and (d) help support the Church’s many religious and social programs. 
 
 Scientology parishioners are requested to contribute financially to the support and expansion of the religion by making donations for services and by contributing generally to Churches and their affiliated organizations. Other religions may have a system of tithes while some others require their members to pay for pew rentals, to make offerings for masses, religious ceremonies and services or to purchase tickets for admission to High Holy Day services. 
 
 Church policy forbids engaging in “refinancing,�? “using 401k’s�? or any other practices of that nature. 
 
 As to the rest of the questions, and the contention that the Church “reissues or revises�? courses, the entire line of questioning is utterly ludicrous and offensive. Ms. Remini knows nothing of the ecclesiastic structure of the Church’s religious services. The restoration of our Founder’s Scripture in accordance with his wishes is something our parishioners embrace. I am incredulous that ABC will take sides with an apostate about religious services. Ms. Remini has hooked up with the “suppressive people�? she seems jaded about, and she can enjoy them—people like Mike Rinder and his fellow wife beaters. 
 
 If you truly are interested in knowing about Scientology and our religious services, we invite you to spend the time to visit our website and find out for yourself. Otherwise, I find these questions absurd. 
 
 Ms. Remini’s claim that the Church tried to use her to “recruit her co-star, Kevin James�?: 
 
 There was no effort to recruit Mr. James into Scientology. As we understand it, it is no secret according to various press reports that they had difficulties getting along, which is consistent with the experiences many others have had with Ms. Remini. 
 
 Her claim that the Church compelled her to marry Angelo Pagan for “PR reasons�?: 
 
 Another ridiculous and false claim. While the Church encourages strong family ties and the institution of marriage, it cannot and does not dictate marriage. The Church also does not interfere with the personal decisions of parishioners. It’s a matter of public record that Ms. Remini wrecked Mr. Pagan’s marriage with his second wife, which was covered in the celebrity press at the time. According to one of those accounts Mr. Pagan’s former wife said, “When Leah met Angelo he was married with a small 4-year-old child, when she started dating him he was married, and when he moved in with her he was married. Leah didn’t care about destroying a family. She brags about Angelo, but what she’s not telling fans is that for two years she was a married man’s mistress.�? 
 
 The Church always tries to encourage ethical relationships. Ms. Remini attempted to change and lead her life ethically but continually failed. We never endorse those who shatter the bonds of marriage or allow infidelity to occur. 
 
 Her claim that she did not achieve spiritual gain: 
 
 The Scientology religion offers an individual spiritual development. The Church does not discuss the personal spiritual quests of its parishioners. People all over the world speak of their spiritual gains and increased success in life as a result of Scientology. (See www.scientology.org.) Ms. Remini’s complaints are consistent with her ethical lapses as our Scripture describes. She is what we call a “No Case Gain�? due to her repeated and continuing transgressions against herself, her family, those she knows and works with and others. 
 
 Her claim regarding the Church ecclesiastical ethics and justice: 
 
 Ms. Remini misrepresents the Church’s internal ethics and justice system. All religions have codes of conduct and methods to assist members to honor them. Ms. Remini’s complaints derive from her inability to uphold the ethics and moral level Church members live by to lead happier, more ethical lives. Ms. Remini was desperately trying to remain in the Church while undergoing this process, which led to her being expelled. 
 
 Unfortunately, she continually blames others instead of taking responsibility for her decisions and her inability to confront her issues. Now, she blames the Church for the problems she had with her husband and her inability to get along with others, something that resulted in her getting fired from The Talk. 
 
 Her claim regarding Mr. Cruise and his wedding: 
 
 The Church declines to comment about Mr. Cruise or his wedding in 2006—and find it absurd that ABC is asking the Church about a private wedding. As regards the allegations you raise with respect to the Church, every claim Ms. Remini has made is not only untrue, but ridiculous and stupid. She is just trying to latch onto a prominent celebrity for her own publicity. As a note, every guest but Ms. Remini respected the couple’s privacy by not speaking about it afterward. That in itself describes what kind of person Ms. Remini is: self-absorbed, rude and embarrassing, all traits she displayed as a guest of this event according to parishioners who attended. 
 
 Ms. Remini has a history of stalking Mrs. Miscavige. The leader of the Church does not want Ms. Remini anywhere near his wife. 
 
 Her claim regarding Jennifer Lopez: 
 
 These claims are another lie. The Church does not single out anyone for its services, while its doors are open to all to make the able more able. The Church has not cared that Ms. Lopez was Ms. Remini’s friend. The only dealings the Church had with Ms. Remini with regards to Ms. Lopez was having to listen to her complaints about Ms. Lopez. We are not going to detail it here other than to say it was disrespectful to Ms. Lopez. 
 
 Her claim regarding Mrs. Shelly Miscavige: 
 
 (In light of your second set of questions sent Friday, October 23, this answer will be augmented.) 
 
 You have raised many allegations related to the wife of the leader of the religion. These claims are false and Ms. Remini has been harassing the Church about this matter for some years. Mrs. Miscavige is not now and has never been “missing.�? Ms. Remini was told that in no uncertain terms on several occasions. Yet, despite knowing the truth, Ms. Remini filed a false missing person’s report, which required the Los Angeles Police Department to waste precious resources on a wild goose chase, while Ms. Remini’s friends leaked the story to the media to smear the Church. Within hours of that media leak, the police declared her claim “unfounded�? and closed the case. It has been two years since Ms. Remini’s harassment blew up in her face, yet she still perpetuates this falsehood. Ms. Remini should have been embarrassed and ashamed for filing the report and diverting public resources that were better used to protect the City of Los Angeles. Instead, she won’t let go. 
 
 Her claim that Shane Woodruff called her a “fucking bitch�?: 
 
 This, apparently, was true. It was in reaction to Ms. Remini saying unkind things about Ms. Kidman who is a fine human being. 
 
 Her claim regarding “disconnection�?: 
 
 Ms. Remini knows very well that the Church’s practice of disconnection is a voluntary practice (spelled out at www.scientology.org) designed to help members remove themselves from abusive and hostile relationships. Her description is not true. The Church’s disconnection policy is not different than the Jewish faith of shunning. 
 
 There is no policy in Scientology that requires Church members to disconnect from anyone, let alone family and friends who simply have different beliefs. To the contrary, the moral code of Scientology mandates that Scientologists respect the religious beliefs of others. The Church encourages excellent family relationships, Scientologists or not, and family relations routinely improve with Scientology because the Scientologist learns how to increase communication and resolve any problems that may have existed before. 
 
 In fact, here is how Ms. Remini described it herself when asked about it in 2007: 
 
 “You are taking it out of context. No it doesn't happen like that. There is [sic] people in the world that don't think their family members should be actors. They look down on them… and you have families willing to disconnect from their own child because they want to be actors, it doesn't make sense. We are about family, we are about being the best mom, the best family.�? 
 
 The Church never pressured Ms. Remini to disconnect from anyone nor did it “pressure,�? mandate or otherwise cause anyone to disconnect from her. From what they have told us, those friends who are no longer connected to Ms. Remini chose to do so because of her attitude, selfishness and unpleasant behavior. 
 
 As for relationships with others, Ms. Remini broke up Mr. Pagan’s marriage with a woman with whom he had a very small child. In addition to Mr. Pagan’s family, Ms. Remini also alienated her father. His statement to her before he died, which her sister gave to the Church, was “You have some money and some fame [and] you’re still a self-centered bitch. Everyone around you knows that but because their survival depends on you they really don’t say what’s really on their mind.�? According to her father, Ms. Remini treated her stepmother like a “second-rate person.�? Ms. Remini refused to loan her stepmother money ($1,200) for a CAT scan. While Ms. Remini had plenty of money, she didn’t offer to assist her father. As a result, he and his wife almost lost their house. Her father stated that he called her three times on Thanksgiving and each time she was too busy to take the call. She was too busy also on Christmas and New Year’s Eve to take his call. The Church tried to help her with relationships with others, something she had trouble with. After she left the Church and her father died, Ms. Remini later apparently snubbed her dying sister. Ms. Remini’s stepmother claimed Ms. Remini turned her back on her cancer-stricken sister who tragically died. 
 
 Her claim regarding the Church’s advanced scripture: 
 
 This line of questioning is offensive and the Church declines to discuss its advanced Scripture and would never debate it with ABC or an apostate. The core beliefs of the Scientology religion are publicly available to anyone. These are contained in any of the basic books and lectures by L. Ron Hubbard available in every Church and Mission of Scientology worldwide as well as in public libraries. Mr. Hubbard writes and speaks about the origins of the Universe, the questions of Man’s relation to the Supreme Being as well as the Creation theory (“The Factors�?). These are Scientology’s beliefs. The twisted interpretations promulgated by anti-Scientologists are not. 
 
 Scientology does include a belief in past lives extending back through endless time. Should ABC wish to make a mockery of our beliefs, may we suggest you review the book History of Man, which contains the track of a spiritual being and provides more than enough material for ABC to ridicule. We do not preach the parting of the Red Sea nor that God created the world in six days, but our beliefs are interesting enough to mock. 
 
 It is not unusual for a religion to have confidential scriptures and practices, such as Judaism and Mormonism, not to mention secret texts of Christianity held in Vatican archives. 
 
 Ms. Remini is violating her own sworn promises to respect the confidentiality of these materials. 
 
 The vast majority of Scientology Scripture is widely available to the general public and can be read and studied by anyone. A very small portion that deals with the most advanced levels of spiritual counseling is restricted to those parishioners who have attained the prior levels of spiritual awareness. 
 
 Ms. Remini herself said, on camera, the following in 2007: 
 
 “I wouldn't be disrespectful to any of my friends’ religion. I don't think they should put up with that. It is just disrespectful.�? 
 
 Final Question not asked: 
 
 It was not one of your questions, but we will answer it right now. We are very happy that Ms. Remini is no longer in the Church. She needs to move on with her life. 

 Leah Remini spoke for the first time in an exclusive interview with ABC News “20/20” about what her life was like inside the Church of Scientology, as well as how Tom Cruise and the backlash she faced from the Church after his 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes were factors in her breaking with the Church. 
 
 Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest 
 
 The former “King of Queens” star, who publicly severed ties with the Church in 2013, is the most high-profile celebrity to leave Scientology and go public with her criticisms. She spoke with “20/20” about her new memoir, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology,” and why she is no longer a member of the Church she served for 30 years. 
 
 “I know what my former Church-- how they deal with people who tell their story,” Remini told “20/20.” “And so I wanted to be the one to say it.” 
 
 This week, members of the Church of Scientology delivered multiple documents and emails and made numerous phone calls to ABC News containing highly critical statements about Leah Remini, calling her a liar, “self-absorbed, rude and embarrassing,” and saying she is attempting to “rewrite the truth” in order to sell her new book. Read the Church's full statement to ABC News regarding the interview HERE. 
 
 This is her side of the story: 
 
 How Leah Remini Became Involved in the Church of Scientology 
 
 Leah Remini 
 
 Leah Remini grew up in the tight-knit Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
 “I always felt like I was kind of an outsider because I didn’t have the right things,” Remini said. “I didn’t have a Cadillac. I didn’t have, you know, plastic on my furniture. That was the right way to be, if you were Italian.” 
 
 Her parents divorced when she was 7 years old. Her mother Vicki Marshall, searching for meaning, became deeply involved in Scientology, the religion founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. 
 
 Vicki worked in the Scientology building in Times Square and said her understanding of Scientology’s goal is “to free mankind, to make a sane world.” She said she believed that she was “benefiting the planet” by working for the Church and that it would help her children in the long run. 
 
 “What was told to me … [was] look at what you’re doing for the world, this is more important than… your family,” Vicki said. 
 
 Eventually Vicki decided to bring her daughters, Leah and her older sister Nicole, into the Church. The girls began studying Hubbard’s teachings and learning Scientology’s unique terminology. 
 
 As a kid, this was a big deal, Remini said, because “Scientologists view children as spiritual beings.” 
 
 “You are not treated as a kid, so you are given a lot of responsibility,” she continued. “Your ego becomes extremely inflated.” 
 
 Leah Remini Joins The Sea Org as a Young Teen 
 
 Sherry Ollins 
 
 When Remini was a teenager, her mother decided to enroll her and her sister in the Sea Org, the pious, uniformed, full-time religious order of the Church, and moved the family to the Church’s spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, known as the Flag Land Base. 
 
 Mike Rinder, who was once the spokesman for the Church of Scientology, is no longer a member and is now a very public critic of the Church. He said Sea Org members “are the people who have dedicated their entire lives to Scientology, who live in communal Church facilities, eat in Church facilities.” 
 
 In statements to ABC News, the Church decries Rinder as a liar, “a bitter former member” and a “professional anti-Scientologist.” 
 
 Scientologists believe in reincarnation and Sea Org members are expected to keep working every time they come back. Remini said, “They provide room and board and you work there and you sign a billion-year contract.” 
 
 Both sisters said they were housed in a run-down former motel with “roach-infested” dorms they shared with other children. Leah Remini said she had to perform long hours of serious labor. 
 
 “It could go from working in a laundry room to working industrial sanders,” Remini said. 
 
 For Remini, joining the Sea Org meant leaving traditional school in eighth grade and immersing herself in Scientology study. “It’s more your education in Scientology is pressed upon… you’re learning how to learn Scientology,” she said. 
 
 But Remini said there were other things that prevented her rise in the Sea Org ranks. 
 
 “I would try to start a mutiny because I felt we deserved better rooms,” she said. 
 
 Things came to a head, Remini said, when she and her sister were brought up on ethics charges for their involvement with boys. It was a serious violation, and Remini said Church ethics officers threatened to put both of them into the “Rehabilitation Project Force,” a place for Scientologists who step out of line. 
 
 “When you have screwed up royally in the Sea Org, it’s basically to reform you,” she said. “You have to wear black. You have to run everywhere you go. You have to call everyone ‘sir.’ … So it’s pretty severe punishment for an adult, not to mention a child.” 
 
 When Remini’s mother Vicki heard about this, she said she decided to pull the girls out of Sea Org. 
 
 The Church told ABC News in a statement that children are no longer admitted into the Sea Org, but that Remini was “dismissed … for her inability to maintain the ethical standards related to fraternization,” and that she petitioned to stay but failed. The Church added that when Remini was a member, the living conditions at the Clearwater facility conformed to Florida state health codes. 
 
 Either way, the sisters’ billion-year contracts with Sea Org were over. 
 
 Leah Remini’s Family Moves to Hollywood and Remains Active Scientologists 
 
 Leah Remini 
 
 After a disastrous tour of duty in the Sea Org, Remini and her family moved to East Hollywood in the mid-‘80s. Despite what happened, her mother decided to keep the family deeply involved in Scientology. 
 
 “There was a big Scientology community there,” she said. “We slept on someone’s floor… we had nothing… we had a few bags of clothes.” 
 
 Leah Remini threw herself into the practice and study of Scientology, known in the Church as “moving up the Bridge to Total Freedom,” which she said, “it promotes that you're getting to high levels of awareness as a spiritual being.” 
 
 “Moving up the Bridge” involves taking a series of courses and also participating in “auditing” sessions, a sort of counseling that employs a device known as an E-Meter. The process promises to release negative emotions. 
 
 Back in the mid-‘80s, Remini said she was going through these types of sessions almost daily, which she had to pay for out of pocket. Between auditing, courses, and materials, she said that she spent “thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands [of dollars]” over the course of her Scientology career. 
 
 Needing money, Remini said she started waitressing and doing secretarial work, but then turned to acting and comedy, in which Remini said her experience in Scientology played an important role. 
 
 “There’s tools that are... very helpful... to you in your life, to you as an actor,” she said. “I walked into a room where some people might feel, you know, cower in front of a casting director, I wasn’t.” 
 
 Leah Remini Gets Her Big Break 
 
 Getty Images 
 
 Remini said she had an excruciating year trying to land acting gigs. She got a lead role on the 1989 TV show, “Living Dolls,” but the show was canceled after one season. Over the ensuing years, Remini did hundreds of auditions and landed many small guest roles on TV shows, such as “Saved By The Bell,” “Cheers” and “NYPD Blue.” She even scored some leading roles in a few sitcoms, such as “Fired Up,” and the Church was taking notice. Remini was featured on the cover of Scientology’s official Celebrity magazine. 
 
 During this time, Remini met the love of her life, Angelo Pagan, one night when he was singing in a Cuban nightclub in Los Angeles. Pagan fell so hard for Remini that he got into Scientology and eventually left his wife to be with Remini. 
 
 “Had she been into Kabbalah or Buddhist, I would have done anything,” Pagan said. “Muslim? Hey, give me the Koran, let’s go. Baby, if it’s working for you, I’m in.” 
 
 Through Pagan, Remini became friends with Jennifer Lopez and her then-husband, Mark Anthony. Shortly thereafter, Remini got the call that would change her career -- she had landed the lead role of Carrie Heffernan in a new TV show called “The King of Queens.” 
 
 How Leah Remini Met Tom Cruise 
 
 L. Cohen/WireImage/Getty Images 
 
 The success of “The King of Queens” gave Remini fame, money and she says an increased prominence in the Church of Scientology. 
 
 Ex-Scientologist Mike Rinder said celebrities are treated “very differently” inside the Church “depending on how prominent they are.” 
 
 “The Leah Reminis and the Kirstie Alley and the John Travolta and then ultimately to the Tom Cruise, it’s a very different world that those people live in, a very different Scientology world,” Rinder said. 
 
 Remini was appearing in Scientology videos by at least 1997 and eventually she said she was rubbing shoulders with David Miscavige, the powerful head of the Church, and his wife, Shelly Miscavige. 
 
 “He [David Miscavige] is very, you know, charismatic,” Remini said. “He’s very powerful… he’s likable.” 
 
 Remini and Pagan were married in 2003 and the couple welcomed a daughter the following year, although Remini admits that she deviated from L. Ron Hubbard’s expressed preference for drug-free births. 
 
 “I got that epidural as quickly as possible,” Remini said. “I was going to attempt to do it, you know, for my Church… But you know, when you start feeling a baby coming out of your vagina, I could have-- if there was a rock I would have hit myself over the head with it.” 
 
 That same year, Remini said she made an important friend through the Church -- the world’s most famous Scientologist, Tom Cruise, who declined to comment for this report. Meeting Cruise, Remini said, “at first it’s very effusive, it’s very loving.” 
 
 “You get the laser in on your and you’re the most important thing that ever happened,” she continued. “It’s, ‘what are you doing?’ and ‘how are you doing?’ and ‘yeah, great, great, great, great, great.’” 
 
 Remini said the exposure to Cruise opened her eyes to his vast influence within the Church, an influence she says was exemplified by a call she received one night from a Church official, who she said told her that Cruise wanted her to come over and teach him salsa dancing. 
 
 When she arrived, Remini said two high-ranking Scientology officials were there with Cruise and Katie Holmes, his new girlfriend at the time. 
 
 “He was like forcibly kissing Katie and I said, ‘hey, get a fricking room,’” Remini said. “And well, I was written up for that, and I had to go into session for it.” 
 
 Remini said one of the Church officials there that night reported her comment to the Church. It’s common practice, she said, for Church members to regularly write what are called “Knowledge Reports” on one another for breaking rules. Remini said the accused then have to answer to the allegations in auditing sessions. 
 
 “You can assume if you say something that is critical to the Church, you will be written up,” Remini said. “Husband, wife, mother, daughter, it’s what the group does to regulate itself.” 
 
 Remini admits to writing Knowledge Reports herself frequently, including on her own husband. "I wrote Angelo up all the time," she said. 
 
 After that, she said she continued to spend time with Cruise but didn’t hesitate to speak up when she thought he was damaging the Church in the public view, including in 2005 when Cruise criticized Brooke Shields for using antidepressants and he argued with Matt Lauer about psychiatry during an on-air interview, as well as when he jumped on Oprah’s couch during a widely discussed television appearance in 2006. 
 
 “I’m saying, ‘I don’t think he’s becoming of a Scientologist, jumping on couches, and attacking Matt Lauer… and attacking Brooke Shields,’” Remini said. “Like… ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’ … we need to rein it in, we need to stop all this, and he just needs to be an actor.” 
 
 But after she spoke out about Cruise’s actions, Remini said she “was immediately dealt with,” saying she was taught that “the only reason you’re saying these things is because you have your own transgressions.” 
 
 “So you then become guilty,” she continued. “So being critical of Tom Cruise is being critical of Scientology itself. … You are a person who is anti-the aims and goals of Scientology. You are evil.” 
 
 Remini said she was increasingly dismayed by the fawning attention Church officials heaped upon Cruise, who was extremely close with David Miscavige. 
 
 “I would refer to him even in my own sessions, I was like, ‘you’re doing this for a frigging actor?’” Remini said. “It was so beneath what was truly important. He’s just an actor.” 
 
 Leah Remini Attends Tom Cruise’s 2006 Wedding to Katie Holmes 
 
 London Ent/Splash News 
 
 In 2006, Remini received an invitation to Tom Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes, but she says it came with the request that she bring her friends, Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony. 
 
 “The Church was really the one who invited them,” she said. “On Tom’s behalf.” 
 
 They agreed to attend and in her memoir, Remini writes a lot of color about the wedding, including the moment when she said Cruise serenaded his new bride with the song, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” echoing that famous moment from his movie “Top Gun.” 
 
 “We’re like, ‘that’s an interesting song to sing to your bride,” Remini told “20/20.” 
 
 The wedding would become a pivotal point in Remini’s relationship with the Church. At the wedding, where David Miscavige served as Cruise’s best man, Remini said she became annoyed by what she saw as ham-handed attempts by the Church to separate her from Lopez by having them travel in separate vehicles and sit at different tables. 
 
 “They were always trying to extract me,” she said. “I could only assume because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist and maybe I was barring that road for them.” 
 
 But what really bothered her at the wedding, Remini said, was that Miscavige was there without his wife, Shelly. 
 
 “Shelly was always where David Miscavige was,” Remini said. “It was a wedding of the century… it was like, ‘where’s Shelly?” 
 
 “There’s a Sea Org member sitting next to me from David Miscavige’s office and I’d go, ‘where’s Shelly?’” she continued. “It’s such a simple thing. It’s a big wedding that the leader of the Church is here and his wife isn't. It’s getting weirder because you're making it weirder.” 
 
 The Church told ABC News in a statement that in regards to Cruise’s wedding, every claim Remini has made is not only untrue but “ridiculous and stupid.” 
 
 But Remini said she left the wedding on what she calls a mission to save Scientology, writing a Knowledge Report complaining about Church members at the wedding. 
 
 “I thought, ‘I now see where the cracks are in our Church, and it’s David Miscavige, it’s Tom Cruise.’” Remini said. “They were bringing down Scientology.” 
 
 To her dismay, Remini said she learned that numerous Scientologists had filed reports on her for being loud, late and rude, upgrading her hotel room and switching seats at the reception. In short, Remini said, they were claiming that she had “basically destroyed the wedding.” 
 
 Remini showed “20/20” a document that she claimed was a Knowledge Report from Katie Holmes. 
 
 “It starts with, ‘I was dismayed at the behavior of Leah Remini during the events leading up to our wedding ... At the wedding, the behavior as a guest, a friend ... was very upsetting,’” Remini said, reading the document. 
 
 Remini said she was sent to the Sea Org facility in Clearwater, Florida, for what she calls “reprogramming.” 
 
 “I was in an auditing room,” she said. “Basically they were just trying to get me to recant what I said, to apologize for ruining the wedding of the century.” 
 
 In response, the Church told ABC News in a statement that “Ms. Remini voluntarily went to the Church to receive religious services. Her characterizations are another example of revisionist history.” 
 
 Even after all that, Remini said she wasn’t ready to leave the Church at the time, because she said leaving means “giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life.” She was also worried about having to leave her family behind. So, Remini said, “I said everything they needed to say, and once I did that, I was free to go home.” 
 
 Leah Remini Starts to Question Staying in the Church 
 
 Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images 
 
 After the wedding, Remini resumed her life as an active Scientologist. She continued taking Church courses and doing her auditing sessions, while "The King of Queens" ended its run in May 2007 after nine seasons and 207 episodes. 
 
 Later, Remini said she wrote a letter to David Miscavige, apologizing for "acting like a complete idiot at the wedding" and "I admire you for all you have done." 
 
 But in her mind, Remini said the seeds of doubt had been growing, not just about the organization but also about its cosmic theology. 
 
 One example she said was when she reached a key level of Scientology’s “Bridge to Total Freedom,” or “Operating Thetan 3,” she was at a point where she said key Church secrets about the history of the universe are revealed. In one document written by Church founder L. Ron Hubbard, he tells a story about an intergalactic warlord named Xenu. 
 
 “It was some galactic confederation,” Remini said. “There was a war and there was a volcano and they bodied, you know, they took the spirits of people and they encased them into something, into a volcano, blew them up and then those spirits are now inside of you, on you, in you, like you are made up of these things.” 
 
 When she read that, Remini said she thought, “this is some crazy s***.” Again, she said she wasn’t ready at that time to walk away from the Church. 
 
 In a statement to ABC News, the Church would not talk about their advanced scriptures, but said that “it is not unusual for a religion to have confidential scriptures and practices," adding that “the vast majority of Scientology Scripture is widely available to the general public and can be read and studied by anyone. A very small portion that deals with the most advanced levels of spiritual counseling is restricted to those parishioners who have attained the prior levels of spiritual awareness.” 
 
 While Remini struggled privately with her faith, she said she continued a cordial friendship with Tom Cruise and exchanged friendly notes, including one in which he thanked her "for being such a great Scientologist." 
 
 But in 2012, Katie Holmes publicly left Tom Cruise, and Remini said she felt vindicated. 
 
 “Yeah, I said, ‘Where’s my apology? … Do I get an apology from Tom, from David Miscavige? … do I get and validation from the Church?’” she said. 
 
 Just this week, Katie Holmes, who declined to be interviewed for this report, gave a statement to ABC News in which she neither confirmed nor denied writing that Knowledge Report about Remini but said, “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future.” 
 
 When told about Holmes' statement, Remini told ABC News that she was “touched by it.” 
 
 How Leah Remini Eventually Decided to Break With The Church of Scientology 
 
 Gregg DeGuire/WireImage/Getty Images 
 
 Remini said the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce re-ignited a lot of her old anger about her grueling counseling sessions in Florida and about all of the money she says she had spent on the Church for auditing, courses and materials. She also showed “20/20” trophies she said she received for giving more than $1 million to Scientology charities. 
 
 As her frustration mounted, she said she decided to commit a serious infraction in Scientology -- she went online and began reading comments from critics of the Church. 
 
 Remini said she saw the reports of families who said they were torn apart by the Church’s practice of “disconnection” -- the shunning of ex-members by their friends and relatives still in the Church -- and allegations by former top officials who say they were punched or slapped by David Miscavige. 
 
 “I was heartbroken for myself, for my family,” Remini said. “I didn’t want these things to be true.” 
 
 Scientology has adamantly denied that Miscavige physically stuck anyone. 
 
 Remini herself had long dismissed Church critics, but then, in an abrupt about face, she reached out to Mike Rinder, a man the Church views as one of its arch enemies. 
 
 “I mean, talking to me is like, you know, sleeping with the devil,” Rinder said. 
 
 By this point, Remini said she was becoming more and more assertive about Shelly Miscavige, whom she said she still couldn’t locate or contact. She said she demanded Church officials deliver a note from her to Shelly. 
 
 “I started to say enough and I said where is Shelly? Where is Shelly? Over and over again and I wasn’t getting an answer,” Remini said. 
 
 The situation came to a head, Remini said, when the Church sent two high-ranking Scientology officials to her house, a visit that turning into an argument, and almost much more, when Remini’s husband Angelo Pagan said one of the officials called her “a bitch.” 
 
 “I grabbed him by the collar, yes,” Pagan said. 
 
 After that, Remini said she was finally ready to leave the Church. The Church told ABC News in a statement that Remini was expelled for ethical lapses, and claims she tried to stay, which Remini denies. 
 
 Either way, Remini was very concerned her family would “disconnect” from her. 
 
 “I’m ready to walk away from everybody that I’ve ever known and cut ties with my own husband, my own mother, because you don’t know what they’re going to decide,” Remini said. “Very often, my experience is people choose the Church.” 
 
 The Church told ABC News that disconnection is voluntary and “designed to help members remove themselves from abusive and hostile relationships.” 
 
 But to Remini’s relief, her mother Vicki and the rest of her family supported her decision and left the Church with her. The fact that her family came with her, “means everything,” Remini said. 
 
 Where Things Stand with Leah Remini Today 
 
 ABC News 
 
 Leah Remini went public with her separation from the Church in summer 2013. 
 
 The Church’s initial public response to her departure was subdued, but then Remini filed a missing person’s report on Shelly Miscaviage, who she said hasn’t been seen in public since August 2007. 
 
 The Los Angeles Police Department investigated the claims but told ABC News they “met with the alleged missing person” and “we consider the case closed.” The Church attacked Remini’s filing of the report as a “publicity stunt.” 
 
 The open warfare between Remini and the Church escalated when Remini went on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” in Sept. 2013, and danced to Katy Perry’s “Roar,” a song she said she chose to send a message. 
 
 Celebrity Scientologist Kirstie Alley went on Howard Stern’s radio show in Dec. 2013 and bashed Remini, calling her a “bigot” and saying, “when you decide to blanket statement that Scientology is evil, you are my enemy." 
 
 Remini said she understood Alley’s remarks. 
 
 “Anybody who criticizes the Church is-- to cry that everybody’s a bigot towards their religion and this is religious bigotry … I was in the same position, I said similar things about people like me,” Remini said. 
 
 Just this week, as Remini guest hosted “Dancing With the Stars,” and ABC News prepared to broadcast its interview, the Church of Scientology ramped up its criticism. In one statement to ABC News, the Church said Leah Remini's "repeated ethical lapses and callous treatment of others led to an ecclesiastical review which resulted in her being expelled. She now regurgitates the tired myths the Church has repeatedly debunked, circulated by the same tiny clique of expelled former staffers bitter at having lost the positions they enjoyed before their malfeasance and unethical conduct were uncovered." Read the Church's full statement to ABC News regarding the interview HERE. 
 
 “I agree with them, I wish I too could get over 30 years of this quickly,” Remini said. “Unfortunately it’s going to take some time… [but] that’s not a shining endorsement for the Church of Scientology to say that I’m deeply flawed after 30 years of reaching the upper levels of the Church.” 
 
 When asked if she would rather see the Church disappear or just change, Remini said it was a “hard thing” to grapple with. 
 
 “I know a lot of them have been in for a long time and I know they’re good people,” she said. “It’s the policies of the Church … It’s the parishioners that have the power. It’s the parishioners that actually could effect change by just not subscribing to it.” 
 
 Two years out of the Church, Remini said her life is now better than ever and that the ordeal has reinforced the bonds within her family, bonds on display during their reality show on TLC, “It’s All Relative,” where the departure from Scientology is frequent fodder for discussion. 
 
 “At the end, I mean I don’t regret what I’ve been through,” Remini said. “I don’t regret spending my life there, because it really did teach me a lot … and because we’ve all survived it, we’re all surviving it and living life and it’s kind of like we have a gift of second chance of life.”
– During her 20/20 interview Friday, Leah Remini revealed that it was at Tom Cruise's 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes that she first began to seriously doubt Scientology. And now the New York Daily News has published excerpts from Remini's Scientology exposé Troublemaker, out tomorrow, in which she discusses that wedding in more detail. Five of the weirdest claims: The church asked Remini to bring along her friends Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. "The church was really the one who invited them. On Tom's behalf," she says. Then the church constantly tried to "extract" her and separate her from Lopez and Anthony, she says. "I could only assume because they wanted to make Jennifer a Scientologist and maybe I was barring that road for them." Cruise serenaded Holmes with "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," in an apparent nod to his famous Top Gun scene. "We're like, 'That's an interesting song to sing to your bride,'" Remini says. In her book, she also reveals that Cruise stood at the altar waiting for Holmes for 20 minutes, as Lopez asked Remini, "Do you think Katie is coming?" Suri Cruise was 7 months old at the time, and Remini says she heard the baby crying and followed the noise to a bathroom, where she found Suri lying on the floor as three women (including Cruise's sister and his assistant) stared at her as if she were "L. Ron Hubbard incarnate," Remini writes. Remini says she persuaded the women to pick Suri up and give her a bottle. Remini says that after the wedding, she rode to the airport with Cruise's children from his marriage to Nicole Kidman, Bella and Connor. After Remini asked if they'd seen Kidman recently, Bella replied, "Not if I have a choice. Our mom is a f---ing SP." That's "Suppressed Person," the Daily News explains, a Scientology insult. Remini—who says she was snubbed by Cruise and Holmes in the reception line—was annoyed by other behavior she saw at the wedding as well (church chairman David Miscavige's wife didn't show and he flirted with his assistant; the ceremony officiant was "humping Brooke Shields on the dance floor"; and more) and ended up filing a complaint noting that "Tom Cruise seems to be running our church." But the church sided with Cruise and Holmes, she says, and she found out many other guests had filed complaints about her; she ended up being questioned for months, billed $300,000 for the "audit," and forced to apologize. Holmes was one of those who supposedly complained about Remini, and in response to the uproar, the actress released a simple statement: "I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future." The church, on the other hand, has released a few statements in response to Remini's claims; in one, it claims this is all "a thinly veiled effort to gin up publicity to boost an otherwise sagging career." (Click to see what Remini's husband has to say.)