This troublemaker was bound to chime in! Leah Remini revealed to ABC News on Thursday, April 28, that she encouraged Ron Miscavige, the father of Scientology leader David Miscavige, to write a memoir about his 40-plus years of experience in the church.
The King of Queens actress — who dominated headlines last November after releasing her own memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology — says she reached out to the elder Miscavige after he defected in 2012.
“I tracked him down,” Remini, 45, recalled to ABC News in her new sit-down interview. “I called him and I offered my support, because I know he must’ve felt alone. I just wanted him to know that we were willing to take them in. Because there is no place for them to go unless they have family, which is very rare, outside of the church.”
Like Ron, Remini left the church after decades of service in 2013, and subsequently detailed her experiences as a Scientologist in her now bestselling memoir. Remini told ABC News that she “immediately” encouraged Ron to write a book about his intimate journey in the church. “Because his story is important,” she disclosed. “We’re all gonna speak up. You’re not gonna just bully people telling their stories.”
Ron took Remini’s advice, and detailed his 40-year Scientology journey — 27 years specifically devoted to the church’s mysterious Sea Org — in his upcoming memoir, Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me. He will also open up to 20/20′s Dan Harris about his son, David, in an interview airing Friday, April 29.
“He wasn’t always that way,” Ron said of David in a new preview. “When he was a kid, he was a lovable kid.”
The church, in the interim, has slammed Ron and his upcoming book, calling it “literary forgery.”
“There seems to be no explanation except that his father is trying to make a buck off his name,” Scientology attorney Monique Yingling told ABC News. “So I think there’s that level of sadness and I’m sure a sense of betrayal.”
Scientology expert Tony Ortega reported this week that the Church of Scientology is currently trying to legally halt the publication of the senior Miscavige’s upcoming book. Lawyers from Johnsons Solicitors (on behalf of its client David Miscavige) contacted the U.K. publisher of Ruthless asking them to stop the book’s release, arguing that it was “highly defamatory.”
Ron’s interview with ABC will air on 20/20 on Friday, April 29, at 10 p.m. ET. His memoir, Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me, will be released on May 3.
