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In November 2009 the Church of Scientology's representative in New Zealand, Mike Ferris, was asked in a radio interview about Xenu. The radio host asked, "So what you're saying is, Xenu is a part of the religion, but something that you don't want to talk about". Ferris responded, "Sure". Ferris acknowledged that Xenu "is part of the esoterica of Scientology".
== Leaking of the story ==
Despite the Church of Scientology's efforts to keep the story secret, details have been leaked over the years. OT III was first revealed in Robert Kaufman's 1972 book Inside Scientology, in which Kaufman detailed his own experiences of OT III. It was later described in a 1981 Clearwater Sun article, and came to greater public fame in a 1985 court case brought against Scientology by Lawrence Wollersheim. The church failed to have the documents sealed and attempted to keep the case file checked out by a reader at all times, but the story was summarized in the Los Angeles Times and detailed in William Poundstone's Bigger Secrets (1986) from information presented in the Wollersheim case. In 1987, a book by L. Ron Hubbard Jr., L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman? quoted the first page of OT III and summarized the rest of its content.
Since then, news media have mentioned Xenu in coverage of Scientology or its celebrity proponents such as Tom Cruise. In 1987, the BBC's investigative news series Panorama aired a report titled "The Road to Total Freedom?" which featured an outline of the OT III story in cartoon form.
On December 24, 1994, the Xenu story was published on the Internet for the first time in a posting to the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, through an anonymous remailer. This led to an online battle between Church of Scientology lawyers and detractors. Older versions of OT levels I to VII were brought as exhibits attached to a declaration by Steven Fishman on April 9, 1993, as part of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz. The text of this declaration and its exhibits, collectively known as the Fishman Affidavit, were posted to the Internet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology in August 1995 by Arnie Lerma and on the World Wide Web by David S. Touretzky. This was a subject of great controversy and legal battles for several years. There was a copyright raid on Lerma's house (leading to massive mirroring of the documents) and a suit against Dutch writer Karin Spaink—the Church bringing suit on copyright violation grounds for reproducing the source material, and also claiming rewordings would reveal a trade secret.
The Church of Scientology's attempts to keep Xenu secret have been cited in court findings against it. In September 2003, a Dutch court, in a ruling in the case against Karin Spaink, stated that one objective in keeping OT II and OT III secret was to wield power over members of the Church of Scientology and prevent discussion about its teachings and practices:
Despite his claims that premature revelation of the OT III story was lethal, L. Ron Hubbard wrote a screenplay version under the title Revolt in the Stars in the 1970s. This revealed that Xenu had been assisted by beings named Chi ("the Galactic Minister of Police") and Chu ("the Executive President of the Galactic Interplanetary Bank"). It has not been officially published, although the treatment was circulated around Hollywood in the early 1980s. Unofficial copies of the screenplay circulate on the Internet.
On March 10, 2001, a user posted the text of OT3 to the online community Slashdot. The site owners took down the comment after the Church of Scientology issued a legal notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Critics of the Church of Scientology have used public protests to spread the Xenu secret. This has included creating web sites with "xenu" in the domain name, and displaying the name Xenu on banners and protest signs.
== In popular culture ==
Versions of the Xenu story have appeared in both television shows and stage productions. The Off-Broadway satirical musical A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, first staged in 2003 and winner of an Obie Award in 2004, featured children in alien costumes telling the story of Xenu.
The Xenu story was also satirized in a November 2005 episode of the animated television series South Park titled "Trapped in the Closet". The Emmy-nominated episode revolved around Stan being brought into Scientology, with many coming to believe he's the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard. Confidently, the president of the church attempts to explain the story of Xenu, depicting the figure as a vaguely humanoid alien with tentacles for arms, in a sequence that had the words "This Is What Scientologists Actually Believe" superimposed on screen.
In a 2013 episode of The Eric Andre Show, a prank skit parodying both the Church of Scientology and the pseudohistorical teachings of the Black Hebrew Israelites features Andre and a group of "Black Scientologists" chanting: "Who do we want? Xenu! When do we want him? Ten trillion years!"