Ex-Scientologist Leah Remini reveals Tom Cruise is the reason she left the Church

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In an interview with ABC News 20/20, she says Tom Cruise is one one of the main reasons that she severed ties with the Church of Scientology
She says: 'Being critical of Tom Cruise is being critical of Scientology itself… you are evil'
Adding: 'As time goes on, you start to lose touch with the real world. The mindset becomes 'Us against them'
Scientology's ruthless indoctrination, she claims includes blackmail and control over other celebrities like Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley
Kirstie is no longer speaking to her and has called her 'repulsive' and 'a bigot'
Church of Scientology writes off Leah as being 'obsessed with shamelessly exploiting her former religion for publicity'

By Caroline Howe For Dailymail.com and Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 14:50 EST, 25 October 2015 | Updated: 08:27 EST, 26 October 2015

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TV actress and former star of King of Queens, Leah Remini has blasted Tom Cruise in a revealing interview and says he is one of the reasons that she severed ties with the Church of Scientology.

Remni, 45, made the difficult decision to walk away from the Church in 2013, and explains that part of her decision was connected to megastar Tom Cruise.

In a trailer for an upcoming interview with ABC News 20/20, which is set to air on October 30, she said: 'Being critical of Tom Cruise is being critical of Scientology itself…you are evil.'

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Leah Remini has blasted Tom Cruise in a revealing interview and says he is one of the reasons that she severed ties with the Church of Scientology

Remini and her family joined the Church when she was a young girl and says she was a diligent Scientologist while she built a successful acting career in Hollywood.

When she decided to cut all ties with the Church after 30 years as a devout Scientologist it was a difficult decision to make but she says she was willing to face the church blacklisting her in order to escape it – thanks to the help of her close friend, Jennifer Lopez.

'As time goes on, you start to lose touch with the real world. The mindset becomes 'Us against them,' she says during the ABC interview.

'The decision to leave is you are giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life.'

Daily Mail Online learned that Remini anticipates even more blow back and possible lawsuits with her expose of the corrupt inner workings of the covert organization in her explosive memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.

Daily Mail Online has learned that Remini anticipates even more blow back from her expose of the corrupt inner workings of the covert organization in her explosive memoir

The actress also details her 30-year association with the Church in her new memoir, 'Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.'

'I feel that people need to understand this has been my whole life,' Remini tells 20/20, 'I want them to understand how it happens.'

Remini fears more nightmarish repercussions of severing her ties with the church of Scientology and says she may be about to be in the crosshairs again.

The book is to be published by Ballantine Books in November.

Scientology's ruthless indoctrination, she claims. includes blackmail and abuse as well as control over other celebrities like Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley.

It was a difficult decision to make after 30 years as a devout Scientologist, but she says she was willing to face the church blacklisting her in order to escape it – thanks to the help of her close friend, Jennifer Lopez.

'When you leave, you can leave quietly,' Leah said. 'But If you make a stink in the public world, they call you a Suppressive Person, which means the church has put a stamp on you that says you are bad.

'No one is going to tell me how I need to think, no one is going to tell me who I can, and cannot talk to', Remini told People magazine in 2013 when she left the church.

Leah's mother, husband Angelo Pagan and daughter, Sophia were all practicing Scientologists.

'I'm not about to shut up. We stand united, my family and I, and I think that says a lot about who we are and what we're about.

'We didn't have a choice and there are pretty hard repercussions to leave it', Remini stated in a video clip from her own TLC reality series, Leah Remini: It's All Relative.

'If you are raised in it as a child, you don't have loyalty to your family. The church does come first to you and that is what we would be teaching.

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'I didn't want to raise my daughter in the church because from what I experienced and what I saw, the church becomes everything, your mother, your father, your everything. You are dependent on the church.

'In 10 years, if I didn't want to be connected to the church anymore, my own daughter [Sophia] would be taught to disconnect from me. I didn't want to create that. I didn't think that would be healthy for her.'

The church also demands a minimum of three and a half hours commitment every day, seven days a week, she says.

There's very little time left for your family.

Tom Cruise, Kelly Preston, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley listen to actress Jenna Elfman speak at a Church of Scientology event

Remini became disturbed about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, the wife of David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology. She filed a missing persons report but the LAPD called it 'unfounded'

Remini labels herself a 'troublemaker' in this hotly anticipated take down of the church and its hierarchy, in what is also an expose of its most famous members that include Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

Kirstie no longer is speaking to her.

When Remini finally walked away, she was branded a 'suppressive person' in church terminology and willingly faced Scientology's attempt to destroy her life.

But Remini, who was brought into the church as a child by her mother, viewed it as destroy or be destroyed.

The actress has attempted to raise her profile following the break with the church by appearing on Dancing with the Stars and with her own TLC reality show, It's All Relative.

She anticipated the onslaught of negative publicity from the church and it came.

Desperate to hold onto her family and friends, she realized she had to make a clean break because the church was taking over her life.

Her family and friends were instructed to disconnect from her forever because she had now become a 'Suppressive Person' in their vernacular. She wasn't leaving quietly.

The pressure by the church was intense but she had no choice if she didn't want to lose her daughter to Scientology.

That wasn't an option.

'I'd seen a lot of crazy s**t, like crazy s**t. Like it really goes back to when I was seven years old', Remini said on It's All Relative.

Actress Kirstie, a Scientologist since 1979, bizarrely called Remini 'repulsive' and 'a bigot', going after her in an interview on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show.

Alley told Stern that she had now reached the OT-7 level in the church, 'an awareness level', 'less insanity'. But that so-called new awareness didn't reflect in her critical attack of Remini who had helped raise a lot of money for the church.

In the past years, Remini has been disturbed about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, the wife of David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology, who has been seen only once since 2006. Remini filed a missing persons report but the LAPD called it 'unfounded'.

Remini had confronted Miscavige in 2005 at the lavish wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes at the Odescalchi Castle on the shores of Lake Bracciano, Italy, just outside Rome.

Afterward, back in the States, Remini says she was was subjected to what is called 'Security Checking', months of interrogations and behavior modification at Scientology's Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.

The interrogations continued until the actress agreed to drop the complaint, she says.

The treatment was brutal and Remini says she was billed $300,000.

In an early response to Remini's book, the Church of Scientology writes her off as being 'obsessed with shamelessly exploiting her former religion in a pathetic attempt to get publicity'.