Jerry Falwell Jr., the troubled rock star of the U.S. Christian conservative movement, is now under more scrutiny after a business partner claims he had a years-long sexual relationship involving the evangelical leader and his wife.
Giancarlo Granda, now 29, says he met Jerry and Becki Falwell in March 2012 when he was 20 years old and working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel. Starting that month and until 2018, Granda told Reuters that the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry watched from the corner of the room.
Granda showed Reuters emails, text messages and other evidence that he says demonstrate the sexual nature of his relationship with the couple, who have been married since 1987.
The relationship with the Falwells went sour over a business dispute, Granda told Reuters.
Granda first emerged as a figure in the Falwells’ circle two years ago, when BuzzFeed News reported that the couple had befriended Granda
The Falwells went into business with Granda, buying a Miami Beach youth hostel in 2013 that Granda managed, BuzzFeed News reported in 2018. A Falwell family representative said Granda was “offered a share” in Alton Hostel LLC. He still has a stake in that venture, corporate records show, according to Reuters.
Michael Bowe, a lawyer for Jerry Falwell, told Reuters that the evangelical leader “categorically denies everything you indicated you intend to publish about him.”
However, Jerry Falwell issued a statement to the Washington Examiner saying his wife had had an affair with Granda and that Granda tried to extort money from the couple. Granda denies extortion, saying he wanted to buy the Falwells out.
“Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved,” Falwell said in the statement quoted by the Examiner, Reuters reported.
Falwell’s 2016 endorsement of Donald Trump is credited with helping him win the Republican nomination for president.
Falwell, 58, took an indefinite leave of absence earlier in August from Liberty University, the Christian school he has run since 2007. He stepped down days after posting, then deleting, an Instagram photo of himself with his pants unzipped, standing with his arm around a young woman whose pants were also partly undone.
Becki Falwell, 53, aka “the first lady of Liberty University,” served on the advisory board of Women for Trump, which advocates for the president’s reelection.
The university in Lynchburg, Virginiacalims to have an online and on-campus enrollment of more than 100,000 students. Students are held to a high standard when it comes to sex. “Sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman are not permissible at Liberty University,” the code reads.
