Falwell confirms resignation after confusion
RICHMOND, Va. — Jerry Falwell Jr. said Tuesday that he has resigned as head of evangelical Liberty University because of controversies about his wife’s sexual involvement with a younger business partner and in the wake of a social media photo that caused an uproar.
Falwell’s exit marks a precipitous fall from power for one of the country’s most visible evangelical leaders and ardent supporters of President Donald Trump. The Lynchburg, Virginia, university was founded by Falwell’s late father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr.
Falwell confirmed his decision in an interview with The Associated Press. According to the school, he initially offered to resign Monday, hours after the Reuters news agency published an interview with a man who said that he had a yearslong sexual relationship with Becki Falwell and that Jerry Falwell participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur. Falwell later reversed course and began telling news outlets he had no intention of leaving.
“That’s the only reason I resigned: because I don’t want something my wife did to harm the school I’ve spent my whole life building,” he said in a phone interview. “I never broke a single rule that applies to staff members at Liberty, which I was. So I want everybody to know that.”
The university confirmed in a statement that its board had accepted Falwell’s
resignation as president, chancellor and board member. All were effective immediately, the statement said.
Becki Falwell also spoke with the AP on Tuesday, saying that she and her husband are “more in love than ever.”
“We have the strongest relationship, and Jerry is the most forgiving person I’ve ever met,” she said. “It’s a shame that Christians can’t give us the same forgiveness that Christ gave us.”
Falwell had been on leave since earlier this month after a photo he posted on social media ignited a controversy. Then late Sunday, The Washington Examiner published a lengthy statement from Falwell disclosing that his wife had an extramarital affair. The statement, later shared with the AP, said the man involved had been threatening to reveal the relationship “to deliberately embarrass my wife, family, and Liberty University unless we agreed to pay him substantial monies.”
Falwell said he was seeking mental health counseling after dealing with fallout from the affair, which he said he had no role in.
“Over the course of the last few months ... we have decided the only way to stop this predatory behavior is to go public,” the statement said.
But on Monday, Reuters published Giancarlo Granda’s account of the relationship, including what the news agency said was an audio recording of a phone call between both the Falwells and Granda.
The tale of Granda’s ties to the family, previously reported in part by other news outlets, has become known as the “pool boy” story. Granda and the Falwells met while Granda worked as a pool attendant in Miami.
Granda, who did not return a call from AP on Tuesday, took on partial ownership of a hostel in Miami’s partyfriendly South Beach neighborhood with members of the Falwell family, according to court documents. The purchase of the property was a surprise move in itself for the president of a conservative evangelical university. Granda’s later involvement sparked legal jostling that later involved Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer.
Falwell’s indefinite leave of absence as president and chancellor began on Aug. 7 after a photo he posted on social media sparked outrage. It showed him with his pants unzipped, abdomen exposed and arm high around the waist of his wife’s pregnant assistant. Falwell has said the photo was taken at a costume party during a family vacation.
Critics of the photo said it was evidence of hypocritical behavior from the leader of a university where students must follow a strict code of conduct that includes modest dress and a ban on alcohol consumption and premarital sex. The photo also prompted new pushback against Falwell from school alumni and supporters, including North Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Walker, who called for his resignation.
Liberty alumni and Virginia pastor Colby Garman tweeted on Monday night that the events which brought Falwell down “are not the public fall of a Christian leader into sin.”
“They are the unmasking of a longstanding hypocrisy that has fed off the resources and goodwill of a Christian institution while despising the truths it was established to uphold,” Garman wrote.
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