What happened to Shelly Miscavige? Golden Globes host Jerrod Carmichael's shocking Scientology joke explained

Jerrod Carmichael made a Shelly Miscavige joke while hosting the Golden Globe Awards on Tuesday, leaving the audience and social media users stunned.

He shared the comment while mocking Tom Cruise before calling his Top Gun: Maverick co-stars Glen Powell and Jay Ellis onstage.

Carmichael appeared with three Golden Globe trophies and addressed how Cruise returned his previous awards in 2022 amid an ongoing boycott. He said:

“Hey, guys backstage I found these. [It’s the] three Golden Globe awards that Tom Cruise returned. I’m just a host briefly, or whatever, but I have a pitch I think.”

The comedian further added a reference to Shelly Miscavige and joked:

“Maybe we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige.”

Shelly Miscavige is the wife of Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige. She was reportedly last seen in public in 2007, and since then her mysterious disappearance has continued to make news.

Carmichael used Shelly’s reference to joke about Tom Cruise, as the latter has also been a member of Scientology over the past 30 years. Cruise is currently among the most high-profile Scientologists.

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A look into Shelly Miscavige's disappearance

David was accompanied by his wife, Shelly, in almost all of Scientology’s meetings and social events. However, the former reportedly started attending events without his wife in 2005. Shelly was last seen in public at her father’s funeral in 2007, and her disappearance remains unsolved.

While the phrase “Where’s Shelly?” is considered taboo within Scientology, it is a question often raised by critics of the cult. Despite nearly 15 years of disappearance, the Church of Scientology continues to insist that Shelly has never been missing, but she has decided to stay out of the public eye.

Following The Daily Beast’s coverage of Shelly Miscavige’s disappearance, the publication received a letter from the Church of Scientology saying:

"Mrs. Miscavige has never been missing and is living her life to her choosing"

Former high-ranking Scientologist member and activist Mike Rinder once said that the cult allegedly made whistleblower Marty Rathbun release a video saying that claims about Shelly’s disappearance are part of a scam by Scientology's critics.

Actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini first asked questions about Shelly’s disappearance after the latter failed to attend Tom Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes, which was considered a major event for the church.

Remini wrote a Twitter thread claiming that she was told she did not have the rank to ask about Shelly. She also claimed that her question led to “months of cruel interrogations and reprogramming for the high crime of asking where Shelly was.”

The actress also filed a missing persons report with the LAPD in 2013, nearly five years after Shelly’s disappearance. Hours after the report, the LAPD reportedly said that Shelly was found and the case was closed.

When Remini asked about her report, cops reportedly told her that the information about Shelly Miscavige’s whereabouts was “classified.” A former LAPD officer later told The Daily Beast:

“I and many other detectives believe that the investigation was VERY poorly handled and the LAPD fell way short on this one.”

Journalist Tony Ortega claimed that members of the Sea Organization allegedly said that Shelly was on a special project. When her husband found out that she had finished structuring the Org Chart without his permission, she was allegedly removed from her position of power.

In 2013, Ortega claimed that Shelly was alive and living in a form of exile at the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), an autonomous church of Scientology. Some believe that she was sent to CST in 2005 and was only allowed to see her family if any member passed away.

According to Vanity Fair, when Shelly’s father passed away in 2007, she was reportedly escorted by a Scientology handler and consistently monitored during the event.

Ortega also reported that before being taken away, Shelly was reportedly working at Scientology’s “Int Base,” which is also the location of its brutal prison camp known as “The Hole.”

While some theories suggest that Shelly was brought back to The Hole after being taken to CST, Sea Org members who were held at The Hole between 2005 and 2016 reported that they never saw Shelly at the camp.

In 2014, Mike Rinder reported that a former private security guard allegedly admitted that he was hired by Scientology to guard the Twin Peaks CST compound and watch over Shelly for six months.

Although the guard claimed that he never interacted with Shelly in person, he said that she was present at the CST compound and was the only reason behind the high security in the building.

As per Tony Ortega’s website, a woman who lives close to the Twin Peaks CST compound has often claimed that she saw Shelly in the town of Crestline, California.

After seeing a photograph in Leah Remini’s interview about the disappearance, the woman and her husband both allegedly identified the woman in the photo as Shelly. Eyewitnesses told Ortega:

“She was a thin, smaller woman, escorted by two men. Disheveled. Almost like a drug addict, or like she was homeless.”

According to the alleged account provided by the eyewitnesses, Shelly Miscavige was reportedly alive and held in the Twin Peaks CST building as of 2016.

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Twitter reacts to Jerrod Carmichael’s Shelly Miscavige joke

Jerrod Carmichael’s Shelly Miscavige joke left viewers shocked (Image via Getty Images)

Golden Globes host Jerrod Carmichael’s joke about Shelly Miscavige while mocking Tom Cruise onstage left several people shocked.

While the audience audibly gasped after Carmichael’s comments, social media users took to Twitter to react to his joke:

Despite years of speculation, international media attention, and a police investigation, there is no definite information surrounding Shelly Miscavige’s disappearance or proof of her current whereabouts.