Leah Remini is living up to her “troublemaker” moniker when it comes to spilling details about her 30 years with the Church of Scientology.
The actress, who wrote a memoir and participated in an eight-part docuseries about the controversial religion, recently revealed even more frightening experiences with Scientology during a Reddit AMA on Tuesday.
Below are five of the craziest things Remini said happened during her time in Scientology.
1. The actress spent millions of her own money on Scientology.
In her AMA and in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Remini revealed she gave the church roughly $3 million of her own money. She also said that the average, non-famous members of Scientology are forced to fork over $250,000 of their hard-earned money to gain “religious freedom.”
2. A history of mental, physical and sexual abuse reportedly exists within the church.
“Your doctrine is abusive,” the actress said. “It mandates that you abuse people.”
“The most abusive thing that I’ve experienced is seeing the victims being further victimized by an organization that claims these things did not take place ... from physical, to sexual, to mental abuse,” Remini said, adding that it is up to authorities and law enforcement to take action against Scientologists, as they are the ones who hear about the “cases of abuse, coerced abortions, being held prisoner, fraud, mental and emotional imprisonment.”
3. Church members don’t leave because they were “born and raised” into the religion.
4. Remini once fought critics of the church because she believes they were ignorant.
The actress says she was instructed that any criticism of Scientology was unfounded, simply because people didn’t understand how much the organization was allegedly helping the world.
5. She’s aware the church is tracking her every move.
“I’m okay with it because I knew what I was getting into and I knew the policies of the ‘church’ and what would happen by my speaking out against it,” Remini said. The actress and her family have been targeted with all sorts of harassment since they left Scientology in 2013 ― including a website that specifically aims to discredit the claims made in Remini’s new TV series.