Tom Cruise has apparently been taught to think people like Leah Remini are the devil. Photo / Getty Images
Tom Cruise has apparently been taught to think people like Leah Remini are the devil. Photo / Getty Images
Outspoken ex-Scientologist Leah Remini has declared Tom Cruise thinks she's "literally the devil" for leaving the controversial religion.
"He thinks I'm the devil," the actress said in an interview with Larry King on US television. "Tom and most Scientologists, all Scientologists, are taught to believe that people like me are literally the devil, that we mean them harm."
Remini described Cruise as a "dedicated and loyal Scientologist", with a caveat.
"Tom is very well-aware of what is Scientology, truthfully. He is very well-aware that it's an organisation that is defrauding people out of their lives. But in his heart, I believe he believes it."
The King of Queens actress joined the church at just nine years old, but started questioning things when she attended Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006 and asked where the wife of Scientology leader, David Miscavige, was.
Until recently, Shelly Miscavige had not been seen in years. Holmes filed an official complaint with the church.
"I was dismayed at the behaviour of Leah Remini during the events leading up to our wedding and our wedding. The behaviour of a guest, a friend, that was very upsetting," Holmes said in the letter.
Remini was forced to undergo 'auditing', or hours of interrogations, and fined tens of thousands of dollars.
Holmes, who has said nothing about her time as a Scientologist, apologised last year.
"I regret having upset Leah in the past and wish her only the best in the future," she wrote, having left the church herself in 2012.
In 2013, Remini was also out the door, making a very public split with Scientology.
Since then she has been a vocal critic of the religion, publishing a memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. More recently, she stirred the pot again with the documentary, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.
Asked her if she thought Cruise was "delusional", Remini said he is, in the way she was when she attended the church.
"I could say that about myself at the time," she said. "I didn't want to look. I didn't want to believe that what I've been involved in my whole life was a lie, that it was damaging and hurting people," she explained.
Cruise, who is the religion's most famous member, is notoriously press-shy when speaking of his 30-year faith. However, back in October he made a rare public comment on Scientology, calling it "a beautiful religion".
Speaking at a movie premiere in London, he said: "It's something that has helped me incredibly in my life. It's something, you know, without it, I wouldn't be where I am. So it's a beautiful religion. I'm incredibly proud."
