Fans have long wondered whether Leah Remini and Jennifer Lopez are still close — and it sounds like Michelle Visage has answers.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race judge, 55, discussed her own friendship with Remini, 53, during a Wednesday, September 27, appearance on Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang’s “Las Culturistas” podcast. As Rogers, 33, gushed about his love for Remini and Lopez’s 2018 collaboration Second Act, Yang, 32, asked, “[Leah] and J. Lo are best buds, right?”
As Rogers continued talking about the movie, Visage replied, “No comment.” Yang, meanwhile, burst into laughter.
Remini and Lopez, 54, met in 2004 at a red carpet event. “It was one of those instant chemistry things, where you just feel like, ‘I love this person. I love being around this person. This person makes me laugh,’” Lopez gushed to Entertainment Tonight in 2018. “She’s cool, and we also have very similar upbringings. That’s why we work well together.”
More recently, however, some fans have wondered whether the duo have grown apart. When Lopez exchanged vows with Ben Affleck for the second time in August 2022, Remini wasn’t present at the ceremony because she was taking her daughter, Sofia, to college. (Remini shares Sofia, 19, with husband Angelo Pagán, whom she wed in 2003.)
Remini further raised eyebrows in January when she attended Marc Anthony’s wedding to Nadia Ferreira. Anthony, 55, was married to Lopez from 2004 to 2014. The former couple share twins Max and Emme, 15.
Neither Lopez nor Remini have commented about where they stand now, but Remini has said she doesn’t always love fielding questions about Lopez. “Not because I don’t love talking about my friend, but I feel a lot of times it’s for gossip purposes,” Remini said during a February 2021 interview on the Today show. “Especially if I am trying to talk about something that is important, like our podcast, or exposing the abuses that we’re talking about in Scientology and the victims of Scientology and somebody asks me about Jennifer’s wedding. I just find it utterly annoying.”
Visage, for her part, has been friends with Remini for years. Before Remini left Scientology in 2013, she got Visage into the religion as well. During her “Las Culturistas” interview, Visage said she left the church after learning more about their beliefs.
“It was time to make a commitment or get out,” Visage said. “I was like, ‘Something doesn’t feel right.’”
After she left the organization, representatives allegedly called her “for months” — and Remini, an outspoken critic of the church, wasn’t surprised. “I told Leah, and Leah’s like, ‘I get it, I get it.’ And I’m like, ‘How can you do it?’” Visage recalled before praising Remini for her Scientology-focused memoir and docuseries. “She’s only speaking her truth and letting people speak their truth. She’s trying to help, and that’s what, ironically, Scientology’s supposed to do.”
The church has long denied Remini’s claims about Scientology, calling her an “anti–free speech bigot” in August after she filed a lawsuit against the organization. “The Church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech,” the church said in a statement at the time. “If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia.”
