Leah Remini divorcing Angelo Pagan after 21 years of marriage
Leah Remini has announced the end of her marriage but insists the pair remain close and have a "positive outlook" about it all.
Leah Remini and her husband Angelo Pagan are set to divorce.
The 54-year-old actress released a lengthy statement on Thursday (29.08.24) confirming she and her other half - who have 20-year-old daughter Sofia together - are to end their marriage of 21 years, as they have both "changed" as people, but they remain close and will continue to be in each other's lives and plan to make many more "cherished moments" together.
She began the social media post: "Well, here we are. After 28 years together and 21 years of marriage, we have decided to file for divorce.
"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.
"We are proud of how we have worked through this together.
"Yes, we’re sad, and we’ve got some figuring out to do as we continue to move forward into our new normal – together still in many ways, and apart in some new ones.
"But here’s the thing: we’ve been best friends for so many years. We are still celebrating holidays together, watching our favourite TV shows together, and gathering as a family."
Explaining their decision to end their union, she said: "So, the big question – why?
"To put it simply, we 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.”
The 'King of Queens' star felt she owed it to her fans to explain the end of their marriage after they shared much of their relationship on the TLC show 'Leah Remini: It's All Relative' – and they hope their positive outlook will inspire others to not see divorce as "failure".
She went on: "From our perspective, this marriage was a huge success.
"And now, we’re looking forward to creating even more cherished moments—just in a different way.
"We want to be as transparent as we can be here because, for years, we shared our marriage so publicly, whether it was on our specials on VH1 or our reality show, which ran for two seasons on TLC.
"We are sharing this unknown territory with you all as we take our first steps into this next stage of our lives publicly.
"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.
"We’ll keep sharing snippets of our lives as we navigate this new chapter."
The couple met in 1996 and tied the knot in 2003.
Leah is also stepmother to his sons Angelo Jr, Alex and Nico from a previous relationship.
