Who Is Leah Remini's Husband, Angelo Pagan?

Leah Remini is best known for her role on the CBS sitcom "The King of Queens," where she spent nine seasons alongside her TV husband, Kevin James. The actors played working-class Queens, New York couple, Carrie and Doug Heffernan, from 1998 to 2007. They were so convincing in the roles that it was sometimes hard to imagine they weren't real-life spouses.

In her book, "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology," Remini revealed that her relationship with James was so intense that they argued while on set — just like a real couple. "Yes, we fought, like many married couples who were together every day for years," Remini wrote in her book (via Showbiz Cheat Sheet). "And yes, I treated Kevin just like I treated my husband, meaning I drove him crazy like any good wife would."

Yep, that's right, Remini has a real husband who is not James. The sitcom star is married to actor and salsa musician Angelo Pagan, and they share one child together, a teen daughter named Sofia Bella Pagan. Remini and her future spouse met in the late 1990s at a Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles called El Floridita. In an interview with Redbook, Remini revealed that it was "love at first sight."

While she was madly in love, Leah Remini did not paint a perfect picture of her early months with Angelo Pagan. In her tell-all book, she revealed that Pagan was still legally married to his second wife when she met him, and she described him as a "serial cheater," per Life & Style. In a 2019 interview with talk show host RuPaul (via YouTube), Remini reflected on her rocky start with Pagan. "We did have a hard time in the beginning," she said. "We didn't meet under the best circumstances. We got counseling and it was not an easy road."

After six years of dating, the couple married in 2003 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas, according to Us Weekly. The wedding — which was performed by a minister from the Scientology center that Remini was a member of at the time — was attended by Remini's TV husband, Kevin James, as well as producers from "The King of Queens." Producer Rob Schiller told People that Remini and Pagan's vows "brought tears to everybody's eyes."

The couple welcomed daughter Sofia in 2004, per IMDb. Pagan also has three grown sons — Alex, Nicholas, and Angelo Jr. — from his two previous marriages to former wives, Elaine Aviles and Raquel Williams.

Angelo Pagan was born in Puerto Rico, but his family moved to New York City when he was a baby, according to Amomama. While attending City College of San Francisco, the future husband of Leah Remini was bitten by the acting bug. Pagan logged a few acting credits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, well before he met Remini, per his IMDb page. He also had a successful career as a bandleader and salsa musician, and he released a solo album titled "'No Tengas Miedo," according to Hispanic Houston.

But Pagan also appeared on-screen with his famous wife on "The King of Queens," which is where fans may recognize him from. Pagan guest starred in six episodes of Remini's long-running CBS comedy between 1999 and 2006, and he hilariously trolled his wife in the process! In the episode "Do Rico," he played a hunky co-worker of Remini's TV husband's that she was attracted to, and in another episode, he played a construction worker that heckled her character as she walked by his job site. More recently, Pagan made a cameo on James and Remini's follow-up series, "Kevin Can Wait," in 2017.