When it comes to the Church of Scientology, Leah Remini continues to be an open book—especially when discussing the church's key players, Tom Cruise and his ex-wife, former member Katie Holmes.
On the heels of her tell-all memoir release and in-depth interview regarding her revelations, the former King of Queens actress has now responded to the actress who caused her a lot of "time and pain" while a parishioner.
"At the time, I was fighting with her," she told Good Morning America's Amy Robach, tears swelling in her eyes after Robach read Holmes' statement. "Now, I know really what she was going through."
Remini described the kind of patrolling that went on within the church as "an environment where everyone is writing each other up." It inevitably caused a great rift between the two families.
"I had no idea she was going through probably a lot more and looking back now and seeing her and Suri out there in the world, and her being able to be with her daughter and live her life, I'm touched by it because I know now she did what she did leaving in the way that she did because she had to protect her daughter," the 45-year-old mother acknowledged.
For her 11-year-old child, Sofia Pagan, that same goal was constantly in Remini's mind.
"I didn't want my daughter to choose the church," she admitted, citing that many families often do over their relationships with each other.
Now that both Remini and Holmes have broken their bonds with their former faith, they can relate on a different level.
"It's really because we both left that we're able to have this kind of grace towards each other because we're back to being human," she said.
Despite being critical of her years in the controversial religion, she does want to cut it some slack.
"I don't want to sit here and bash it because it gave me a lot," she told Robach. "It helped me in my life but you can't take some of it and leave the rest. You have to be all in."
The reality star did acknowledge that there are "a lot of good things" about the organization, though she must also recognize it's extremism. "It's an all in or all out proposition."
Still, the former Dancing With the Stars contestant revealed she did not like the person she was while practicing.
"I was very judgemental while I was in the organization. I felt we had all the answers. I felt we were doing amazing things for the world," she said. "That's what we were told. That's what we believed."
Such public services included consistent attempts to convert her peers to join the church, a process she described as an effort in "curing man's ills."
"I felt that I always had some kind of agenda," she said.
After publicly leaving the church in 2013 following 36 years of service to the religion, Remini returned to a different kind of devotion.
"I was always religious. I was baptized as a Catholic. I got my daughter baptized as a Catholic," she said. "I'm reconnecting with my faith. It's been a beautiful thing."
In tandem with her newfound faith, Remini said her quality of life overall has been uplifted.
"Your life becomes about being celebratory. There's a freedom to it," she declared. "People are good and not everybody is against us and not everybody is trying to hurt you and it's not all about conspiracies."
In addition to personal benefit, Remini also wants her cautionary tale to prove beneficial to those who find themselves at a similar crossroads.
"We really want people to know it's never too late to start again," she said.