Leah Remini has shared an emotional and heartfelt tribute to her “closest confidant” Mike Rinder, following his dying over the weekend.
“On Sunday, we misplaced an enormous, and I misplaced a person who was greater than a good friend – he was household,” she wrote about her good friend and co-worker, who had joined her on a multi-year, multi-platform endeavour to show alleged abuses by the Church of Scientology.
“It’s unimaginable to think about the final 13 years of my life with out Mike Rinder,” Remini mentioned. “Once I left Scientology, Mike was one of many first folks I turned to.”
“Collectively, we launched into an unbelievable journey that included The Aftermath and our podcast, Truthful Recreation,” Remini continued. “However Mike was a lot greater than my associate on this combat – he was my brother, my father, and my finest good friend.”
Rinder and Remini teamed up after each leaving Scientology, collaborating on the A&E docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath and the podcast Truthful Recreation.
“Mike saved my life and the lifetime of my daughter and he stood by me via battles that felt insurmountable,” she wrote.
“I haven’t come to phrases with the fact that I can’t name him and listen to his voice anymore. I’m shattered in methods I by no means thought doable. I’ve cried endlessly and might’t appear to maneuver from my mattress since coming house.”
Rinder’s spouse, Christie Collbran, introduced his dying on Sunday, Jan. 5, through Instagram. Rinder was 69, and whereas his reason behind dying has not been confirmed, he had been identified with superior esophageal most cancers in 2023.
Earlier than Rinder left the Church of Scientology in 2007 and have become one of many loudest whistleblowers, pulling again the curtain on its interior workings, he served in varied government roles inside the church, together with the worldwide spokesperson, head of the Workplace of Particular Affairs and a member of the board of administrators of the Church of Scientology Worldwide.
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After leaving Scientology behind on the age of 52, he grew to become a critic of the group.
After Rinder launched his memoir, A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life within the Highest Ranks of Scientology, in 2022, the Church of Scientology hit again, denying all of the allegations he’s made over time.
Remini beforehand shared that she was capable of spend a while with Rinder and his household over the Christmas holidays.
“Spreading a little bit vacation cheer in Florida with my @rindermike and his stunning household,” she captioned a photograph of her and Rinder embracing in his mattress. “As a lot of you recognize, Mike has been courageously battling most cancers, and your messages of affection really elevate his spirits. Please preserve Mike, Christie, and their two boys in your prayers. Encompass them with all of the love and power they so deserve.”
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