The news that designer Rebecca Minkoff is filming with the Real Housewives of New York City cast has brought with it some fascinating questions.
Mainly, will Minkoff’s beliefs as a Scientologist play a role in season 15 of the Bravo staple?
A source close to production told Us Weekly that Minkoff has “been shooting with some of the ladies for the upcoming season” in an unspecified role. But however much of her fans end up seeing this season, viewers should not expect her to shy away from her religion.
As she told The New York Times in a 2021 profile, “I’m totally open. But it’s not my job to proselytize.”
Minkoff’s relationship to Scientology is her own, and as the profile highlighted, she identifies both as Jewish and a Scientologist. She refers to the church as “more of a self-improvement philosophy.”
“I think there’s a lot of confusion when people hear the word ‘religion’ — immediately you hear that I pray to L. Ron Hubbard,” she said. “I study it, I take classes and that’s the extent of it, and it’s helped me stay centered. I don’t have all the answers. When I needed someone, it was a place for me to go get some answers.”
Minkoff went deeper on her beliefs in an appearance on the “Dinner Party With Jeremy Fall” podcast in October 2021.
“Scientology, which the word itself means knowledge,” she said. “That’s all it means.”
“I’m Jewish so I have my beliefs with Judaism and God and I go to Scientology to learn knowledge,” she continued. “And that’s spiritual because I’m not working out my abs. We’re just separating the body from the spirit. It has personally helped me from my own demons, my own things I’m not happy about myself.”
She went on to try and discredit critics of Scientology, who she believes are pushing misinformation.
Those same critics call Scientology a “cult” and point to the role Minkoff’s father, also a Scientologist, might have played in the 1995 death of Lisa McPherson. McPherson was a Scientologist whom the church convinced to not seek medical care after a minor traffic accident. She instead spent 17 days in the care of the church until her death. Rebecca’s father, David Minkoff, was the doctor who pronounced McPherson dead.
“I’ve been around it and in it for the better part of 20 years and I’ve never seen anything kooky or weird or anything, except a bunch of nice people who go out of their way to help others in need,” Rebecca said.
Rebecca concluded by saying that a few bad actors should not define Scientology as a whole.
“You can’t take a bad person and equate it with the original tenants,” she said. “There’s no such thing as an alien. We don’t believe in a f–king — all the crazy stuff, the aliens are gonna come, whatever.”
