Photo: Leah Remini/Instagram
Leah Reminiis processing her father’s death.
On Sunday, the actress revealed on Instagram that while her dad died a month ago, she had “no idea” due to their estrangement. In her lengthy caption, she blamed theChurch of Scientologyfor the nature of their relationship at the time of his death.
“If you read my book, you’ll know my father and I had a difficult relationship, but I always forgave him with a daughter’s painfully endless love and hope,” she said, referencingher 2015 book,Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, which chronicles her split from Scientology.
“Regardless of his neglect and abuse, I had hoped to one day have some closure,” she went on. “I hoped for him to acknowledge who he had been and what he had done to us as his children. That alone would have been healing in its own way. We never got that, yet I can’t help but grieve.”
“Knowing my father, after taking the offer from Scientology to betray me, he wouldn’t have thought that he could ever come back from that in our relationship. If he thought that, though, he would have been wrong,” she concluded. “I would have forgiven him as I always did. The little girls inside of my sisters and me will never forgive Scientology for taking away our last chance to have the one thing we always wanted from our father… And that was for him to say ‘I’m sorry and I loved you.'”
A spokesperson for the Church of Scientology tells PEOPLE in a statement, “Leah Remini blames everyone but herself for destroying her relationships. It’s beyond hypocritical. She was estranged from her father, who was never a member of the religion, for years and now even exploits his sad passing for tabloid attention.”
Remini, 49, was a member of the church for 35 years beforemaking her split public in 2013. Since she left, she’s been an outspoken critic of the organization, most recently helming the A&E docu-series,Scientology and the Aftermath, which concluded in August.
source: people.com
