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Jada Pinkett Smith and Leah Remini Settle Their Scientology Feud

On Pinkett Smith’s Facebook show, “Red Table Talk,” the actresses gave their versions of the events that led up to their falling out.

Actresses Jada Pinkett Smith and Leah Remini decided to sit down and hash out the Scientology-stained feud they’ve had for years.

On this week’s episode of “Red Table Talk,” Pinkett Smith’s Facebook show, the two women got to the bottom of their ill feelings toward each other, which began brewing shortly after the publication of Remini’s 2015 memoir and Scientology takedown, Troublemaker.

In the book, Remini, a former Scientologist, wrote about a time when Tom Cruise wanted to play hide-and-seek with her and some other famous friends at his home. She said that she thought it was weird to ask a bunch of adults to play hide-and-seek and declined to play but that Pinkett Smith and her husband, Will Smith, participated.

Pinkett Smith was later questioned about this passage on “Watch What Happens Live,” and she shrugged off the passage and the assumption that it was a creepy Scientology thing. She described the incident as completely innocent and said that some young kids were also involved in the game, including hers.

Remini took this as a sign that Pinkett Smith was trying to discredit her account and had joined the Church of Scientology.

During “Red Table Talk,” the 47-year-old “Girls Trip” star said she responded the way she did on “Watch What Happens Live” to protect her and her husband and offer her recollection of the experience. She added that she was upset at Remini for even mentioning her and Smith in the book because, regardless of rumors and her curiosity about all religions, she and her family are not members of the church.

“I was hurt, but I never said anything,” Pinkett Smith admitted.

“I wasn’t even considering that you would be hurt,” Remini confessed, saying that when she wrote the book, she was “going hard on my rightness” and was “caught up in that pain” caused by the church.

Remini, 48, said she assumed Pinkett Smith was a Scientologist after her appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” because it seemed she was using a tactic Scientologists call fair game, in which a Scientologist discredits and attacks “anyone speaking out against the abuses of Scientology.”

“You get trained how to do this,” Remini explained, saying that the Scientologist will first laugh at an accusation as if it’s boring, then attempt to discredit it.

She said Pinkett Smith’s appearance on the show was “textbook” fair gaming.

Despite their conflict, by the end of their conversation, both women said they understood where the other was coming from. They concluded, as Remini put it, that “it’s never too late to heal” and ended their chat with a hug.

To see the whole interview, which includes speculation about Shelly Miscavige — Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife, who has not been seen in years — and Pinkett Smith’s explanation of how her family got involved with Scientology, watch the video below or head over to Facebook.

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