Leah Remini announced she and husband Angelo Pagán are filing for divorce after more than two decades of marriage.
The actress, 54, took to social media on Thursday, August 29, to share the news, explaining that the split was a tough decision to make but that the couple “no longer fit.”
“Well, here we are. After 28 years together and 21 years of marriage, we have decided to file for divorce,” she wrote via Instagram. “This decision came after a lot of thought and care, and as hard as divorce is, we are approaching this with a positive outlook because we know it’s what’s best for us.”
Remini said that she and Pagán, who tied the knot in 2003, are “sad” but “proud of how we worked through this together,” noting that they have some “figuring out to do as we continue to move forward into our new normal.”
“But here’s the thing: we’ve been best friends for so many years,” she continued. “We are still celebrating holidays together, watching our favorite tv shows together, and gathering as a family.”
As for “why” the pair decided to call it quits, Remini said “they both changed, as people do” and “we got used to playing roles that didn’t fit us anymore.”
“After a lot of effort and consideration, we’ve decided to take this step, which reflects who we are today. Our bond is still strong—it’s just evolved into something different. We think a marriage that lasted this long and created so many beautiful memories, especially raising our incredible daughter, is something to celebrate,” she said, adding, “From our perspective, this marriage was a huge success.”
Remini shared that the pair wanted to be “transparent’ about the split because of how public they have previously been about their marriage, “whether it was on our specials on VH1 or our reality show.” (Leah Remini: It’s All Relative, ran for two seasons on TLC from 2014 to 2015.)
“We are sharing this unknown territory with you all as we take our first steps into this next stage of our lives publicly,” she concluded. “We would love for everyone to have more access to different kinds of relationship stories and not feel so isolated in navigating the changes that millions of couples make every year. We hope our journey can inspire others to see that relationships—whether they change or end—aren’t failures.”
She added: “We’ll keep sharing snippets of our lives as we navigate this new chapter.”
Remini and Pagán were married in Las Vegas in 2003 by a Scientologist minister. The following year, they welcomed daughter Sofia. Pagán also has three sons from a previous relationship — Angelo Jr., Alex and Nico — as well as two grandchildren, Mila and Markus.
The couple first met at a Puerto Rican restaurant and Remini later described the moment on talk show RuPaul in 2019.
“I saw him across the room and was like, ‘Damn! What time do you get off?’” Remini said. “It was like everything wrong, like everything that you should not do as a girl is ask a guy when he gets off work, hit it real quick, and it was a lot of that.”
While Remini previously described meeting Pagán as “love at first sight” in a 2010 interview with Redbook, she explained on the talk show that the relationship hadn’t always been smooth sailing over the years.
“It’s a beautiful love story because we did have a hard time at the beginning,” she said. “We didn’t meet under the best of circumstances. We got counseling and it was not an easy road. So I’m saying these things to be funny, once again, but the truth of the matter is he is my rock.”
The couple also endured leaving Scientology together, after Remini called it quits in 2013 after 30 years with the church and Pagán following her lead.
“I was saying ‘family first’ [to Sofia], but I wasn’t showing that,” Remini told BuzzFeed in 2015 of her decision to leave. “I didn’t like the message that sent to my daughter.”
A year after their Scientology exit, Remini created and starred in a reality series titled Leah Remini: It’s All Relative.
