Leah Remini has earned a college degree at age 53. The ”Dancing with the Stars” contestant-turned-guest- co-host shared a major update with fans three years after embarking on an educational journey.
In an emotional Instagram post on March 28, 2024, Remini told fans, “Three years ago, I embarked on a terrifying journey: becoming a college student at the age of 50 after only having an 8th-grade education and spending 35 years in a totalitarian cult. After three years of hard work, long nights, tears, and wanting to give up so many times, I have earned an associate’s degree from NYU.”
The update comes a little more than 10 years after Remini cut ties with the Church of Scientology. Remini had been a member of the church since childhood, according to CBS News.
Leah Remini Shared a Photo of Her Diploma
Remini posted a photo of her diploma to Instagram. The certificate from the prestigious New York University revealed that Leah Marie Remini-Pagan received an Associate in Arts from the School of Professional Studies.
In an emotional caption, Remini shared that she “desperately wanted a higher education” for years. She always worried she wasn’t “smart enough.” The actress pointed to the “decades of brainwashing” she received while a member of the Church of Scientology.
Remini thanked all of her professors, the NYU staff, and her supporters, including her mom, stepfather, sisters, husband Angelo Pagan, and her daughter Sofia. While he noted her own “privilege” in being able to attend NYU, she reminded her followers that it’s “never too late” to continue with education. “I’m now working on my bachelor’s degree,” she wrote.
Remini reshared the diploma photo on her Instagram story with the caption, “I did it.”
She also shared several congratulatory messages she received.
Her daughter Sofia wrote, “I am so proud of you. Think about being in Scientology you’d never imagine that you’d graduate from a prestigious university. I love you so much.”
Remini also received a message from her longtime “King of Queens” co-star Kevin James. “So proud of you!!!” the actor wrote. “You should not focus on anything else but being funny…I keep rewatching that scene…I’m in tears! Could be the funniest exchange in the series.”
Leah Remini’s ‘King of Queens’ Character Struggled With Not Going to College
CBS/YouTubeKevin James and Leah Remini on “The King of Queens.”
While it’s unclear which “scene” James referred to in his message to Remini, the two stars worked together for nearly 10 years on the CBS sitcom “The King of Queens,” playing working-class couple Doug and Carrie Heffernan. Remini’s character worked as a legal secretary and later as a real estate secretary. The character’s lack of education became a storyline in several episodes.
In the season 1 episode “Educating Doug,” Carrie enrolls her and her husband in a class at a community college because she thinks they’re both “dumb and boring.”
In a 2000 episode, “Class Struggle,” Carrie becomes embarrassed when she goes out with a group of female lawyers who don’t realize she’s a secretary. She then admits to them she never went to college.
And in the 2001 episode “Lyin’ Hearted,” Carrie becomes upset when he finds that her father Arthur (Jerry Stiller) hid a Florida State University acceptance letter from her decades earlier. “I never saw this letter before,” Carrie says in the scene. “I applied, I really wanted to go, I never heard back. So I just assumed they rejected me like every other college…and that beauty school.”
As Carrie questions why her widower dad would have hidden the acceptance letter from her, she finds a “Pros and Cons list” he penned about whether she should go or not.
“Oh that’s good that’s some great parenting right there,” she says as she reads her father’s list. “This crazy! I would have gone to the school, I could have gotten a degree, I could have gotten out of Queens. My whole life would have been different.”
While Remini had a successful career as an actor and TV host, like her “King of Queens” character, she always felt that something was missing.
In a 2021 interview with the “Today” show, Remini shared that she “couldn’t believe” when she got accepted to NYU. “I was in a cult most of my life and I missed out on an education. And I was like you know, this is something that I’ve always wanted for myself,” she said. “So I applied to NYU. I didn’t tell anybody that I was doing it and I couldn’t believe that I actually got accepted. I’m so excited, I’m doing something that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s like the last thing that I’m kind of taking back.”
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