Leah Remini may be single, but she is certainly not ready to mingle anytime soon.
“My manager asked me, ‘Do you want to do a dating show?’” Remini, 54, recalled in her Us Weekly cover story, on newsstands now. “I was like, first of all, I would never do a f***ing dating show, and two, [my daughter] Sofia already told me and Angelo we’re not allowed to date.”
In August 2024, Remini surprised some fans when she announced her split from Angelo Pagan after 21 years of marriage. The couple — who share daughter Sofia, 20 — remain friends after finalizing their divorce in October 2024.
The pair most recently found themselves giggling over their daughter’s watchful eyes as they continue their new chapter as coparents.
“Angelo and I were laughing about it the other day. Angelo was like, ‘If you ever date somebody, you cannot hide this from your daughter,’” Remini said. “He sings in a salsa band. He posted some picture, I think, of a girl, and Sofia wrote him from New York, saying, ‘You better take that down right now, Dad,’ and he is like, ‘Sofia, I work with this woman,’” she added with a laugh.
Remini assures her daughter that she has no interest in dipping her feet in the dating pool. And although she personally loves setting people up, the former King of Queens actress has no interest if her friends want to flip the script and play matchmaker.
With people “constantly” trying to set Remini up, the actress says, “Don’t even continue your sentence. I have zero interest.”
“Right now, I can’t see sitting across from another guy and listening to [him],” she continued. “My first question [would be,] ‘Are you in therapy?’ The answer is probably no, so no need to further the conversation. I’ve only lived alone for six months in my whole lifetime. That’s where you find yourself, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
When Remini first announced her split from Pagan, 57, in a joint Instagram post last summer, the former cohost of The Talk explained to fans why it was best to call it quits.
“To put it simply, we both changed, as people do, and we got used to playing roles that didn’t fit us anymore,” she explained via Instagram in August 2024. “After a lot of effort and consideration, we’ve decided to take this step, which reflects who we are today.”
When asked how things “changed,” Remini tried to articulate what was going on behind any lights and cameras.
“I saw that Angelo wanted something different,” Remini explained. “When you’re giving what you give in a relationship, but it’s not what the person wants, it’s like, ‘So you don’t appreciate what I’m doing? Well, I don’t appreciate what you’re doing because that’s not what I want in the relationship.’ So it becomes not good for both people — one who’s giving and one who’s wanting something else.
“When I met him, I was in Scientology as a different person. Living in the same household, you’re acting out your roles, and if we’re not changing those roles as our needs change, you’re just growing apart and living under the same roof. We just decided we should file for divorce and do a clean slate so nobody feels obligated to do this or that. Let’s just try to rebuild a new relationship.”
When asked if leaving the Church of Scientology in July 2013 had anything to do with the split, Remini said she didn’t know. (Remini’s mom and Pagan also left the church in 2013.)
“I just think I was fighting for a life that I never fully had autonomy over,” she continued. “Tomorrow’s not promised. I don’t know how much time I have left. I didn’t want to waste [time]. It’s hard to be the breadwinner, a wife and a mother, the one who does all the holidays and then wants to rub your husband’s feet. That’s not something that I’m going to do. And it’s something he deserves.”
For more on Leah Remini, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.
