An ex-Scientologist is speaking out about the situations she claims several celebrities, including former couple Tom Cruise, 57, and Nicole Kidman, 52, were involved in during her time as a member of the Church of Scientology according to a video posted on DailyMailTV. Sam Domingo, 51, the former daughter-in-law of opera singer Placido Domingo, 78, claims she was a member of the controversial church along with her now ex-husband Placido Domingo Jr. for 22 years. In the interview she claims she witnessed some pretty harsh circumstances when she socialized and studied with Tom and his family at the International Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles, CA. According to the interview, one of those circumstances involved Tom and Nicole’s adopted kids, Isabella Cruise, now 26, and Connor Cruise, now 24, being pressured to separate themselves from Nicole after she divorced Tom in 2001.
Sam admitted to being close to Tom and his children (she says her three daughters, Paloma, 22, Victoria, 20, Daniela, 17, also befriended them), as well as his three sisters, whom she states in the interview were all involved in the church with her, and claims the hatred towards Nicole was how the church dealt with the divorce. Sam claims Isabella and Connor were just regular kids at the church until Tom and Nicole’s separation occurred, and when it did, they were both allegedly led into believing their mother should be ex-communicated and regarded a “Suppressive Person” since she was no longer married to Tom.
“I know what techniques they used… I know what the second-in-command at the time did, he was so tough on them, the Cruise kids had no choice. After the divorce, they were indoctrinated into Scientology and very much isolated,” Sam explained.
It wasn’t just Tom’s kids who were affected by the divorce either, Sam says. His sisters, who moved to Clearwater, FL to do their higher levels of studying with the church, were forced to go back to Los Angeles. “The whole Cruise family got ordered back to LA when he divorced Nicole, as they were studying in Florida at the time,” Sam said. “I was shocked they were leaving, I said to [one of Tom’s sisters]: ”Why are you leaving, you’re doing the courses, nothing gets in the way of that?’ She didn’t say anything.”
Although Sam initially planned on staying quiet about Tom and his family situation within the church out of respect for him, she decided to come forward after noticing that Isabella, who is still a part of the church with her dad and Connor, recently posed for a Scientology ad in London in Mar. Although Isabella is now legally an adult, Sam thinks the ad is proof that the church is using her as a “poster girl”. “Isabella’s being used for PR, she’s Tom Cruise’s kid, it’s not fair what they’re doing to her and Connor. They have no choice but to be the poster kids of Scientology now.”
Tom first became involved in Scientology through his first wife, Mimi Rogers, in 1990.
We’ve reached out to both Tom and Nicole’s reps for comment as well as Sam, but have yet to receive a response.
The Church of Scientology responded to our request for comment by stating “We have responded in the past to these absurd claims from this individual, who has been gone from the Church for a decade. This is just more invented gossip usually fed to the tabloids by self-promoting parasites who use bigotry and false allegations about the Church and its members to generate hate and even violence.” The Church directed us to their channel at Scientology.tv or DIRECTV Channel 320 for more information.