Leah Remini announces she earned associate degree

Actress Leah Remini announced that she has earned an associate degree and is working toward earning a bachelor’s degree.

“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,” Remini, 53, wrote in a tweet, referring to her time in Scientology. “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. I’m now working on my bachelor’s degree.”

“I desperately wanted a higher education for many years but didn’t move forward because I feared I was not smart enough. Even though I had managed to leave Scientology, three decades of brainwashing still gripped my mind,” she noted. “Whether a cult used to control your life, you have a full-time job as a stay-at-home parent, or full-time job(s) outside of the home, it’s never too late to continue your education and pursue what you have always wanted to achieve for yourself!”

Remini is widely known for her role on the sitcom “The King of Queens” as well as for helping to expose the dark underbelly of Scientology with her series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”

“As some of you know, since I escaped from Scientology in 2013, I have been followed constantly by Scientology operatives and agents. These people hide in the shadows to monitor my movements and who I am meeting with so they can report back to Scientology’s intelligence agency, the Office of Special Affairs, which reports directly to David Miscavige,” Remini wrote in a post last month.