The Real Housewives of New York City's newest star Rebecca Minkoff is avoiding drama on the catty reality show, but her life away from the cameras is proving to be anything but mundane.
The famed fashion designer, 43, is part of one of Scientology's most powerful and controversial families and is a devout member of the religion herself.
Minkoff, along with her entrepreneur brother Uri, their father Dr. David Minkoff, and mother Sue have shelled out millions to the church and were even awarded 'Diamond Meritorious' status for hitting $5 million in donations, according to anti-Scientology blog The Underground Bunker.
In the '90s, the fashionista's father Dr. Minkoff was involved in a wrongful death lawsuit that could have cost the church its tax-exempt status, and he was recently named in a medical malpractice suit over the death of high-level Scientologist Whitney Mills.
The mom-of-four was also friends with actor Danny Masterson - who is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for rape.
Photos of a beaming Minkoff happily posing with the disgraced sitcom star in 2015 at an event for her fashion label are still up on her official Facebook page.
The Bravo star has so far been able to avoid the topic of her religion both on the hit Bravo series and in many of her press interviews.
On a recent RHONY episode, she awkwardly dodged questions about Scientology from co-star Brynne Whitfield.
'If people ask us about the Scientology sh** what do you want us to say?' Whitfield said.
'Uhhh, no comment,' Minkoff responded. 'And also if you're like, "I don't know what to say, here's what someone asked me," come to me.'
Whitfield responded, 'I know you say "no comment" but that kind of doesn't work. I'm a publicist. So is she.'
Whitfield pointed to co-star Jessel Taank, who was with them at the time.
'I just tell people, "If you're curious, read a book,"' Minkoff shot back. 'That's it.'
She continued, 'We're a world recognized religion. There's nothing secret. There's nothing weird, you know?'
Whitfield then said in a confessional, 'This weekend all these news articles came out about Rebecca being in Scientology, so there's more questions than answers.'
She added, 'The response I'm getting is very like I'm talking to ChatGPT. This is not the time or place for this conversation but I feel like I'm talking to a door to door salesman or something that's trying to sell me snake oil. Between us, it's weird.'
Viewers have been frustrated by Minkoff too, with one writing, 'Why can’t we hear her talk about Scientology which is what everyone knows of her?'
Another wrote, 'Really need the girls to keep pressing Rebecca about Scientology. [I don't give a f**k] about whatever else she got to say.'
A third added, 'I need them to grill Rebecca Minkoff more about Scientology. You will not be on this show and just give us no comment.'
'Why is Rebecca Minkoff on this show? Because she doesn’t really speak but when she does, it’s weird,' added one.
Minkoff grew up in the Church of Scientology and has credited fellow celebrity Scientologist Jenna Elfman for catapulting her self-titled brand into the spotlight.
According to Airmail, which cites the Truth About Scientology, Minkoff has been forking out big bucks for Scientology courses since 1991, and in 2021 she attained the level of 'OT I (Operating Thetan level 1)', which is described by the church as a 'state of godliness.
Her father, Dr. David Minkoff, was recently named in a sensational wrongful death lawsuit against the church over the tragic suicide of Whitney Mills.
Mills, a high-level Scientologist herself, struggled with mental health issues before taking her own life in 2022.
A lawsuit filed by her family alleges that Mills was 'brainwashed' by Scientology into believing that therapy and medical treatment like antidepressants were 'unnecessary and abhorrent.'
The Church of Scientology opposes most modern psychiatric methods, such as psychiatry and psychiatric drugs.
Dr. Minkoff is an 'alternative healthcare expert' who founded The Lifeworks Wellness Center, which is billed as 'one of the nation’s top alternative and natural healing clinics'.
The lawsuit also claims that Mills was 'misinformed and misdiagnosed with Lyme disease and a cancerous ovarian cyst' by Dr. Minkoff, and that he billed her $20,000 for 'alternative' health treatments that had nothing to do with her anxiety or depression.
'Everything foisted upon Mills by these Defendants was outside the field of mental health treatment, and everything failed,' the filing claims.
'She was at her wit's end. Precluded from seeking the appropriate help, she felt she had no other choice.'
According to Inside Edition, on May 12, 2022, Mills 'attempted to set herself on fire before inflicting herself with a gunshot wound.'
The church has denied Mills was ever under its care and stated it does not provide medical advice.
In a statement provided to DailyMail.com, The Church of Scientology called Mills' death an 'unfortunate tragedy,' before adding, 'The complaint is meritless. The false allegations in the complaint are directly contradicted by the evidence in public records.'
Dr. Minkoff also provided a statement of his own, telling DailyMail.com that he and his Lifeworks Wellness Center, 'stand behind the medical care and treatment rendered by their highly qualified medical staff to former patient, Ms. Whitney Mills.
'Lifeworks and Dr. Minkoff reject the false, spurious and sensational claims raised in the lawsuit filed by Ms. Mills’ estate against Lifeworks, Dr. Minkoff and others as it relates to the care and treatment provided to Ms. Mills. As a matter of record, Ms. Mills was no longer a patient of Lifeworks and Dr. Minkoff at the time of her suicide.'
Dr. Minkoff previously paid $100,000 as part of a settlement for the wrongful death lawsuit of Scientologist Lisa McPherson, who died in 1995.
McPherson was just 36 when she died, with the cause of death initially being declared a pulmonary embolism brought on by 'bed rest and severe dehydration.'
Her death came a little over two weeks after she was found naked and dazed on a Clearwater street following a minor traffic accident by law enforcement and EMS, who took her to a nearby hospital for treatment and a psychiatric evaluation.
According to court documents, an officer on the scene said that McPherson was babbling about 'having a hard time at the church' and that she had to be asked questions multiple times to give a coherent response.
Despite staff at the Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater advising McPherson to stay and receive further treatment, she insisted on leaving with three other Scientologists who had arrived to see her, the Tampa Bay Times previously reported.
According to the publication, McPherson spent the next 17 days kept in a room at a hotel, where she was watched round-the-clock by Scientology staff, who were not permitted to speak to her as she recovered from the crash.
An indictment filed against the Church of Scientology in 1998 by the state of Florida detailed McPherson's alleged state during those 17 days.
'After the first week, she routinely urinated and defecated on herself and rarely slept,' stated the indictment.
'She had conversations with people who were not there, claimed to be people she was not, sang and danced around the room as if giving a performance, crawled around on the floor, stood on the toilet, got in the shower fully clothed, tried to walk out of the room in a state of undress, and on at least one occasion drank her own urine.'
McPherson refused to eat and drink anything and had to be force fed.
She was also given herbal sleeping supplements including valerian root capsules and magnesium, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
On the 17th day of this confinement, McPherson went into a catatonic state, so church staffers phoned Dr. Minkoff to try and get a prescription for an antibiotic to use on her.
According to Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration, Dr. Minkoff had previously prescribed McPherson Valium and the muscle relaxant chloral hydrate at the behest of unlicensed Church of Scientology staffers - despite never having personally examined her.
This time around, a concerned Dr. Minkoff refused to prescribe anything to McPherson and urged that she be taken to hospital for treatment first.
According to court documents filed by her family, the church staffers refused to take McPherson back to the nearby Morton Plant Hospital - which was just two minutes away - out of fears that she would be put in the psychiatric ward.
Dr. Minkoff eventually agreed to treat her in person, so the staffers traveled 45 minutes to see him, allegedly passing four different hospitals on the way as McPherson gasped for breath in the backseat.
Court documents report that she had no vital signs by the time she arrived to see Dr. Minkoff, who pronounced her dead.
Dr. Minkoff's lawyer James Felman told the publication at the time that two medical malpractice insurance companies had paid the entire amount of the settlement.
'It wasn't our idea to settle,' Felman said. 'But given that the insurance company is going to pay the money, it is a pittance compared to the millions and millions they were asking for.'
In 2001, the Florida Board of Medicine fined Dr. Minkoff $10,000 and suspended his license for one year, followed by two years of probation, for prescribing McPherson drugs without ever seeing her, according to court documents.
The Church of Scientology was charged with 'abuse and/or neglect of a disabled adult' and 'practicing medicine without a license' over McPherson's death according to the New York Times, but the charges were dropped and McPherson's death was ruled an 'accident' in 2000.
According to a 2012 lawsuit, the group was able to get the charges dropped and cause of death altered after launching a $30 million campaign to sway the medical examiner, which was headed up by leader David Miscavige and former senior executive Mark Rathbun.
The Church of Scientology has denied all of these claims and the allegations were never proven.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez heard arguments on the claims during a hearing in 2012, but was not swayed by them and did not rule in Rathbun's favor.
'Lisa McPherson’s death was a huge problem for Scientology,' Mike Rinder, a former high-ranking Scientologist, told Airmail.
'The criminal prosecution, had it gone forward, could have cost Scientology its newly won tax-exempt status.'
Former Scientologist Quailynn McDaniel, who was a patient of Dr. Minkoff's and a friend of Rebecca's, spoke to DailyMail.com about the aftermath of McPherson's death and the unwavering support he received from his children.
'When David [Minkoff] went through all that with the church, the things with Lisa McPherson, he doubled down and basically the whole family got behind him and said, "David Minkoff, whatever you want we're gonna do for you."
'And they've been doing that for decades now,' she added.
McDaniel left the church in 2009 and now manages a successful skincare clinic in Washington.
She spent 20 years as a Scientologist and knew Rebecca for a decade, and described the Minkoffs as one of the most powerful families in the church.
'Uri Minkoff is her business partner and he's extremely devout. The whole family are very devout Scientologists, so she's surrounded,' McDaniel explained.
'The Minkoffs have a very rich and deep connection to Scientology that in many cases is unmatched due to the challenges that David faced after the incident with Lisa McPherson.'
She also said that she hopes that the spotlight that will come with Minkoff joining a reality TV juggernaut like RHONY will help to bring attention to the dark side of Scientology.
'Highlighting the church's abuses and its mental control is really good,' McDaniel said.
'That's what's gonna cause change. If you draw attention to it and other people see and understand that their practices are not mentally healthy or socially acceptable or normal, and we need to draw attention to these abuses.'
When contacted about McDaniel's claims back in April, a representative for the Church of Scientology accused DailyMail.com of, 'maligning the religion of millions of people by quoting someone who was expelled from the Church years ago due to her gutter ethics.'
Minkoff addressed her faith during a gushing New York Times profile in 2021.
'I'm totally open, but it's not my job to proselytize,' she told the publication.
'I think there’s a lot of confusion when people hear the word "religion" — immediately you hear that I pray to L. Ron Hubbard,' she continued.
'I study it, I take classes and that’s the extent of it, and it’s helped me stay centered. I don’t have all the answers. When I needed someone, it was a place for me to go get some answers.'
Minkoff also took a swipe at critics of the church, calling it 'horrific misinformation.'
McDaniel hit back at Minkoff's comments, saying, 'I saw the quote where she said she doesn't proselytize Scientology.
'But when you go into the Scientology doctrine and you go through the entire [Minkoff] family, that's a false narrative.'
She added, 'Rebecca's gonna try and bob and weave, but at the end of the day it is what it is.'
Her father's lawsuit isn't the only legal scandal that Minkoff is connected to.
Last year, Minkoff was named as an arbitrator in a lawsuit by former Scientologist Valerie Haney, who claims she escaped the church in 2016 by hiding in the trunk of somebody's car to sneak out of the infamous Gold Base compound.
Haney filed a lawsuit against Scientology in June 2019 alleging kidnapping, stalking, and libel, according to Rolling Stone.
A number of Scientology's celebrity members were named as arbitrators in the suit, including actor Giovanni Ribisi, motivational speaker Grant Cardone, and Minkoff, who was a former classmate of Haney's.
While Minkoff isn't accused of any wrongdoing, her association with the church has nevertheless dragged her and other celebrity Scientologists into the lawsuit.
Addressing her faith in a recent interview with Access Hollywood, Minkoff said, 'It's part of who I am.'
She added, 'I was raised Jewish and in Scientology and I'm proud of it. Life is really stressful, so for me this has been a place that I turn to to deal with stress.'
DailyMail.com contacted NBC, Rebecca Minkoff, David Minkoff, and The Church of Scientology for comment.
