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Jada Pinkett Smith and Leah Remini Settle Their Scientology Feud

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Jada Pinkett Smith and Leah Remini Settle Their Scientology Feud

On the “Red Table Talk,” Jada Pinkett Smith and Leah Remini revealed how they resolved their simmering feud.

Remini, 48, made an appearance on Jada Pinkett Smith’s renowned Facebook Watch chat program to finally reveal how the two were entangled in a public spat over Scientology.

The disconnect started after Remini branded Pinkett Smith, 47, and her husband Will Smith as members of the church, which the two later denied.

Remini revealed in her 2015 book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, that Tom Cruise, the controversial religion’s most famous face, once wanted to play a bizarre game of adult hide and seek with his friends, which included Pinkett Smith and her husband, Will Smith, at his Los Angeles home.

Smith’s rebuttal of Remini’s claim on “Watch What Happens Live,” caused Remini to assume she was a Scientologist, as she revealed to The Daily Beast last year.

Pinkett Smith said at the time that Remini made the situation seem stranger than it was, and that the game was simply the guests having fun with their children.

It was just a passing reference, but Smith felt singled out.

When the two met face to face, Smith stated, “It upset me, because I didn’t understand why we had to be in your book, because you know, we really didn’t have anything to do with this. And there were headlines about Scientology and hide-and-go-seek at Tom’s and how, you know, Will and I had participated. And I was hurt, but I never said anything.”

Remini told Pinkett Smith that she didn’t anticipate incorporating them in her 2015 book Troublemaker would have any personal consequences for them.

She tells Pinkett Smith, “I wasn’t even considering that you would be hurt. I literally, looking back on it, I didn’t even consider Jada and Will. And I’m sorry that I didn’t consider you, because I didn’t. I was so caught up in that pain, and also the pain of others and the effects that it had.”

The night in issue was brought up by “WWHL” anchor Andy Cohen in July 2017, when he mentioned an evening when the Smith family spent time with renowned Scientologist Tom Cruise.

“(Cohen) doesn’t tell you what he’s going to talk about. He just throws stuff at you, and so when that came up, I was like that’s not how I remember that night going,” Smith explained. “You had basically created a situation for Will and I… At that point, I’m like, I got to protect Will and I.”

“When I saw it, I was hurt, because I was like, ‘Oh, she’s in (the church),” Remini said.

“When I saw that you made that statement, I felt the need to respond to something that I felt was untrue and was an attack,” Smith stated.

When she saw Pinkett Smith on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Remini, who famously left Scientology in 2013 and has been a vocal critic since, she assumed Scientology put her out to defame her.

“What I do know for a fact is, you didn’t really know Leah 100 percent,” Remini argues, “because what we’re taught is to act a certain way around other celebrities.And when the thing happened on Bravo, I was floored. I was really, really like, ‘Wow. Jada’s — not only is she in Scientology but now they sent Jada out.'”

“Scientology has policies called, ‘Fair Game’ — and that’s to discredit and attack anyone who’s speaking out against the abuses of Scientology,” she says. “I was like, oh my god. She’s even more in than I had thought. And I was wrong.”

“I want to apologize to you, because I never — just so you know — I wasn’t Fair Gaming you on Andy Cohen,” Pinkett Smith swiftly said. “I wasn’t Fair Gaming you.”

At the conclusion of their conversation, Remini expressed her profound regret to Smith, saying, “I truly truly deeply apologize. I should have thought about the names in the book, I should’ve thought about what that meant for you guys, and I didn’t.’

“It’s OK. I love you anyway,” Pinkett Smith replied, and Remini affirmed, adding, “And I love you anyway.”

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