Leah Remini on Scientology: Katie Holmes left to protect Suri Cruise

Leah Remini says that she and Katie Holmes were “fighting, for lack of a better a word” when they were both members of the Church of Scientology, and Holmes issued a statement recently vaguely addressing Remini’s comments: “I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future,” she said via her reps. And Monday, Remini went on Good Morning America to respond.

In the interview, she says Holmes’ statement makes her “emotional” and talks about how she’s come to better understand Holmes over time. “Now I really know what she was going through, because at the time, I was thinking of myself and my family and what we were going through,” she said. “I had no idea she was going through probably a lot more.

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“I know now she did what she did, leaving in the way that she did, because she had to protect her daughter, which, in a way, connects us now,” Remini said, referring to her own daughter, who contributed to her decision to leave the church.

Watch the clip below, and read more about Remini’s experience with Scientology when her new memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, arrives Tuesday.

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