Just in time for Halloween, Leah Remini and A&E continue their religious witch hunt. This time they stir up hate by casting two individuals who, like Remini’s other unvetted sources, can’t keep their stories straight—stories that date back to nearly four decades ago.
As Remini and A&E claims go, Chantal Dodson, Leah’s childhood friend, ranks among the most ludicrous and transparently false yet. To say they never happened is a gross understatement. Chantal’s absurd claims fit the modus operandi for Remini and A&E that has become so familiar. No lie is too shameless to spread, because the goal is to dishonestly make up stories and embellish tales about children with the intent of spreading the kind of hate that has already resulted in more than 500 threats against the Church, including death threats. All come from sources that Remini boasts are “unvetted,” a self-admitted lack of integrity that A&E’s attorneys are more than happy to let her get away with.
No lie is too shameless to spread, because the goal is to dishonestly make up stories and embellish tales about children with the intent of spreading the kind of hate that has already resulted in more than 500 threats against the Church.
After Dodson left the Sea Org more than three decades ago, she returned in 1989 and actively worked to be accepted. She stayed for another four years, which raises the critical question neither Dodson nor Remini want to answer: if conditions were so bad the first time around, why was she so eager to rejoin? It’s a question A&E refuses to address because it would undermine Dodson’s tale and make her useless as the prop Remini needs to cue her to cry on camera. In fact, Dodson was a guest on Remini’s previous reality TV show, It’s All Relative, in an episode discussing their days with the Church. Not once were her tales mentioned though she had every opportunity to do so.
But now, just as every other Remini Aftermath subject, Dodson makes up stories. A good friend of Dodson, who knew her since childhood, contradicts everything Dodson describes, noting that their experiences together in the Sea Org were happy. Dodson’s parents gave her a lot of attention, and she never lacked for anything.
Another friend who knew Dodson during those childhood years recalled seeing Dodson with her parents all the time, contrary to her bogus story of being abandoned that fits into the theme of Remini’s show involving hating and blaming parents.
Chantal Dodson and other children of Sea Org members played together and were also given the opportunity to contribute. They operated their own organization, the Cadet Organization, that was always under adult supervision. The children attended Los Angeles public schools. Another friend who knew Dodson during those childhood years recalled seeing Dodson with her parents all the time, contrary to her bogus story of being abandoned that fits into the theme of Remini’s show involving hating and blaming parents. “I’m very happy,” she wrote then.
Dodson’s cousin, Michael Graves, also recalled the pleasant childhood Chantal and her sister Natalie had. He said the sisters were always happy when they lived in Clearwater in the late 1970s, which he described as “like paradise.”
“They seemed to be the happiest people … Natalie and Chantal always had the latest albums and the coolest music,” Graves said.
He recalled that when Chantal was in the Sea Org she was proud to be a member and that Natalie never once mentioned any separation from her parents or complained about her life. He calls Chantal’s tales a delusion fed by Leah Remini for her TV show.
Chantal’s problems began when, just after turning 14, she fell in with a crowd of drug users at her local public high school in Los Angeles. For the next few years she continued her schooling while also attempting to stay in the religious order, but was unable to adhere to the high ethical standards, as the Church is adamant about members steering clear of destructive illegal drug use. She left the Sea Org 30 years ago, in 1987.
Dobson married her second husband in 1988, changed her mind and decided to return to the Sea Org with him a year later. Although she stayed in the Sea Org until 1992, she committed countless ethical violations, including having an affair with a local florist while still married. She left her husband and left the Sea Org in 1993, married the florist and went back to smoking marijuana.
While married to the florist, Chantal again engaged in various extramarital affairs, left the florist in 2002 and married again. When she filed for divorce in 2002, her then-husband called the Church desperately asking for help because Chantal was having her new boyfriend sleep over, with their kids in the house. Chantal was so dishonest, her former husband said that at one point Chantal threatened to hit herself with a baseball bat and then call the police to falsely accuse him of domestic abuse to disconnect him from their children.
The real story of Chantal Dodson is her inability to abide by high moral standards, having been unfaithful to at least two of the four husbands she has had. Now she seeks attention by helping Leah Remini spread hate with lies.
The real story of Chantal Dodson is her inability to abide by high moral standards, having been unfaithful to at least two of the four husbands she has had. Now she seeks attention by helping Leah Remini spread hate with lies.
Then there is another friend from Remini’s Sea Org days, Sherry Ollins. Once again, Ollins was a guest on Remini’s previous show, It’s All Relative, and never once mentioned any complaints she is now alleging. In other words, she’s now making it up and embellishing her past for Remini’s cameras.
Ollins’ parents signed the consent forms allowing her to join the Sea Org in 1982. At that time children could join but only if they continued attending school as required by state law. Today, anyone under 18 wanting to join the Sea org must be at least 16, have written parental permission, and possess a high school diploma or a GED.
Ollins stayed for a while in New York but soon transferred to be closer to her brother, who at the time worked for the Church in Clearwater, Florida. Like all the children there, she continued her schooling. She lived in a girls’ dorm with Leah Remini who was there with her sister Nicole. Another roommate at the time, Bonnie, recalled the girls had a lot of fun, living in a spacious room with other girls. They lived a drug-free lifestyle that included going to school every day, having weekends off and going to the mall or to the movies on Friday. She said they did minor clerical work within the legal requirements permitted, and spent time with their family. As Bonnie described it, “Sherry and I lived in a dorm together with a few other girls. We had a lot of fun. I remember mostly we use to try on each other's clothes and talk about the guys. There were probably about six of us. I remember that—let's see—had a couple bunk beds, we had one double bed that usually—I think Leah Remini and her sister Nicole use to take over that bed because they were the older ones so they got the nice big bed. And the living conditions were totally great … we had to have every night off, we had to go to school every day, we had every weekend off. And we used to all go to the mall or go to the movies on Friday.”
Sherry Ollins and Chantal Dodson are two more props for Leah Remini to use to spread hate, this time with lies and embellished tales that are
30 to 40 years old.
By 1985, Ollins decided she no longer wanted to remain in the Sea Org and has had no contact with the Church in the 32 years since.
In 2001, her stepfather, Ben Lewis, reported that Sherry was recommending that his two daughters (Sherry’s half-sisters) take psychiatric drugs. One of his daughters went onto Zoloft and then another antidepressant.
In 2003, Ben Lewis desperately asked the Church and Citizens Commission on Human Rights for help with his daughter who he said was being held against her will in a psychiatric ward in London. Ben’s daughter had been calling her father complaining about all the drugs they were giving her. Nine years later, in August 2012, a Pomona police alert was issued on a missing schizophrenic woman, who turned out to be Ben’s daughter, Sherry’s half sister. She had wandered away from a care facility during a fire alarm and never returned.
Leah Remini has always defended Sherry Ollins and her treatment of her family which has resulted in misery, just like Remini’s miserable friends and relatives.
Leah Remini has always defended Sherry Ollins and her treatment of her family which has resulted in misery, just like Remini’s miserable friends and relatives.
Sherry Ollins and Chantal Dodson are two more props for Leah Remini to use to spread hate, this time with lies and embellished tales that are 30 to 40 years old. As usual, Remini and A&E make it look as if everything happened yesterday, because their weekly tales are always devoid of truth.
