Jerry Falwell Jr. says his wife had ‘an affair with a pool boy’

Jerry Falwell Jr. claimed in a statement Sunday that his wife Becki was guilty of an affair in 2012 with a pool boy who was formerly a friend of the family.

Falwell, one of the most influential right-wing Christian leaders in the United States, said the couple had chosen to make the affair public as he alleged the pool boy had been blackmailing them for years about keeping the secret.

He claimed that the ‘threatening behavior’ left him with ‘trauma’ and had greatly affected him as he tried to run Liberty University.

Falwell’s statement did not identify the former family friend but he has previously been named as Giancarlo Granda, a first-generation immigrant living in Florida.

Granda met the Falwell couple as a 21-year-old.

They quickly befriended him, bringing him on vacation and even investing in his gay-friendly hostel, that listed him and Falwell’s son Trey as co-managers, according to the New York Times.

Yet on Sunday, Falwell claimed the relationship had turned sour as Granda threatened to reveal the family’s secrets.

It came after Liberty University, which Falwell’s father founded, said Friday that they were investigating ‘various rumors and claims about Falwell’ as they work to make a decision on whether to reinstate him as president or to fire him.

Falwell began a paid leave of absence earlier in August after a string of embarrassing incidents, including a picture Falwell posted to social media that showed him with his pants unzipped, drink in hand, and arm around a woman.

The prominent Trump supporter now claims that throughout this series of incidents, he was struggling with depression as a result of the threats that Granda was making against him.

Granda hit back at the statement, however, telling the Washington Examiner that ‘the WHOLE truth will come out’, denying all the allegations that the Falwells have brought against him.

Falwell made his statement exclusively to the Washington Examiner, telling them that he was ‘tired of it’.

‘It was like living on a roller coaster,’ he said in the statement.

‘While completely dedicating ourselves to Liberty, we were also suffering in silence during our personal time together, while simultaneously trying to manage and deal with this increasingly threatening behavior, which only worsened over time.

‘We were doing our best to respectfully unravel this “fatal attraction” type situation to protect our family and the university.’

He claims that the affair began in 2012 when Falwell himself was dedicating too much time to the university after being appointed its president following the death of his father in 2007.

He alleges that he was not spending enough time with his wife and that he acknowledged this as a role in the affair as he forgave her.

‘Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved,’ he insisted, ‘it was nonetheless very upsetting to learn about.’

Falwell claims that he lost 80 pounds after learning about the affair.

‘Becki and I forgave each other, because while her indiscretion may have been more obvious and apparent, I realized that there were important smaller things I needed to do better too,’ Falwell claimed, before adding that he is now seeking professional help.

‘I shouldn’t have been afraid to admit my vulnerabilities and to reach out for assistance from the mental health professionals who could have alleviated this pain and stress,’ he said.

The 1,200-word statement continues to claim that after the affair ended, Granda began to ask for large amounts of money to keep the secret.

‘While we tried to distance ourselves from him over time, he unfortunately became increasingly angry and aggressive. Eventually, he began threatening to publicly reveal this secret relationship with Becki and to deliberately embarrass my wife, family, and Liberty University unless we agreed to pay him substantial monies,’ Falwell claimed.

They also accused Granda of being ’emotionally unstable’ and having attempted to target other women in the same way.

The statement claimed Granda ‘demonstrated emotionally unstable behaviors with some destructive tendencies, seemingly in response to his inability to achieve his professional goals.

‘Based on information from other sources, we believe that he may have targeted other successful women in similar ways.’ they added.

The young man fiercely denied the claims, telling the Examiner that ‘any allegation of extortion is falsely, defamatory and belied by clear documentary evidence.

‘The Falwell’s attempt to sandbag me, and the Examiner, with a last minute story without providing the Examiner clear evidence that this was not simply an “affair” with concocted allegations of extortion reeks desperation,’ he added.

The Falwells befriended Granda in 2012 when the young man, then 21, was working as a pool attendant at a luxury Miami Beach hotel.

The couple were staying at the Fontainebleau hotel, which boasts a party scene that is a far-cry from the strict code of conduct at Falwell’s Liberty University.

There students are prohibited from having sexual relations outside of ‘biblically ordained’ marriage and are also banned from engaging with media that contains lewd lyrics, sexual content and nudity.

According to the New York Times, Falwell liked Granda’s ambition and the young man was soon hiking and water skiing with the couple in Virginia,

They even flew him to Liberty University later in 2012 for a speech by Trump, where he was pictured with the president. Photos from the trip showed Granda on a private jet with Trump’s ‘The Art of the Deal’ in his lap.

Some of the details of Falwell’s relationship with Granda were first revealed in 2015 when they were both sued in Florida by a father and son.

Jesus Fernandez Sr. and Jesus Fernandez Jr. claimed that they helped start the Alton Hostel in Miami Beach with Granda in 2013 with the financial aid of Falwell.

According to the suit, Falwell flew Granda around on the family’s private jet and the evangelical leader told the pool boy that he wished to help him ‘establish a new career and build a business’ as their relationship ‘evolved’.

Yet Granda had no experience in business development and had asked Fernandez Sr. to get involved when he went to his then-friend Fernandez Jr., and asked for his help to come up with a good profitable business he could bring to Falwell.

After they came up with the idea for the hostel, Granda went back to Fernandez Jr., and asked him to consult with his father, who ‘was very experienced in real estate ventures,’ according to the complaint.

The complaint accused Falwell, his wife Rebecca, their adult son Trey and Granda of failing to share profits from the real estate venture when Fernandez believed that he had played a central role.

Falwell settled the case in 2019.

The hostel in question was purchased in 2013 for $4.7million in cash.

Falwell filed an affidavit in 2018 saying he used his own wealth to lend $1.8 million to the project with Granda. Falwell’s son Trey was initially listed as manager and Granda later as co-manger.

In the affidavit Falwell said that Granda was made co-manager in return for serving as its local representative.

He added that he saw the hostel as a good opportunity to introduce his son and Granda to real estate investing, the Times reports.

Yet another controversial aspect of the lawsuit would cause further problems for Falwell, however.

According to the Times, it was believed that either Granda, Fernandez or their lawyers had compromising pictures of Falwell that they could use against him.

In May 2019,  Falwell denied a stunning report that longtime Trump fixer Michael Cohen helped him to resolve a ‘blackmail’ attempt to help make ‘terrible’ photos go away in advance of his own pivotal Trump endorsement.

Falwell’s statement came on the heels of a report that the Liberty University President asked Cohen in 2015 to help make some ‘personal’ photos disappear, while the lawsuit was underway.

During a call with actor Tom Arnold, Cohen said that a few months before Falwell’s game-changing endorsement of Trump in the critical Iowa Caucuses, the president of Liberty University solicited Cohen’s help after someone obtained racy ‘personal’ photographs.

Cohen described the pictures to Arnold as ‘terrible’ and the sort that would typically be kept ‘between husband and wife,’ according to a recorded conversation reviewed by Reuters.

After the Falwells told Cohen someone had obtained photographs and was demanding money, Cohen flew to Florida and met with an attorney for the person with the photographs.

Cohen added that the payoff ‘never happened and the guy just either deleted them on his own or what have you’.

No photos have ever emerged.

Jerry Falwell Jr.’s full statement on his wife’s alleged affair

My family has been blessed with the opportunity to serve Christ and our community over the past 50 years – from when my father founded Liberty in the early 1970’s through today. When my father suddenly passed away in 2007, I quickly and unexpectedly went from being the lawyer working in the background on the business aspects of the school to becoming a very public person, having to overcome my fears of speaking in front of audiences of tens of thousands, with many more responsibilities to the Liberty community and to my own family.

My priority was to build on my father’s vision and to work hard. Thanks to the help of the Board and the extraordinary Liberty faculty, executives, staff and community, we have ensured the University’s sustained growth and financial health while providing the best and most modern on-campus and online educational and spiritual resources to a wider range of students both in person and through digital platforms.

My commitment to Liberty became and has remained my primary focus – and while I am so grateful and thankful for our collective successes, I also realize in hindsight that there was a toll that this took on me, which extended to my family too. During this time of reflection for us and this especially challenging year, and even more so following the events of the past few weeks, my wife Becki and I agreed that this was the right time for me to share more of our story, because the Liberty community deserves to hear it directly from me and from us.

During a vacation over eight years ago, Becki and I met an ambitious young man who was working at our hotel and was saving up his money to go to school. We encouraged him to pursue an education and a career and we were impressed by his initiative in suggesting a local real estate opportunity. My family members eventually made an investment in a local property, included him in the deal because he could play an active role in managing it, and became close with him and his family.

Shortly thereafter, Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved – it was nonetheless very upsetting to learn about. After I learned this, I lost 80 pounds and people who saw me regularly thought that I was physically unwell, when in reality I was just balancing how to be most supportive of Becki, who I love, while also reflecting and praying about whether there were ways I could have been more supportive of her and given her proper attention. I came to realize that while it may be easy to judge others on their behavior, the King James Bible reminds us – ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I sayeth unto you, that whoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart.’ In fact, there are ways we may all be sinning, but the Lord believes in this self-reflection.

I was and have always remained fully devoted to Becki and we have shared many private conversations to better understand and support each other and to strengthen our marriage. Thankfully, our love has never been stronger. Becki and I forgave each other, because while her indiscretion may have been more obvious and apparent, I realized that there were important smaller things I needed to do better too.

In Ephesians 4:32 we learn – ‘Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving as God in Christ forgave you.’

We extended the spirit of forgiveness to this man with respect and kindness, both for spiritual and religious reasons, and in the hope that we could help him find his way and allow us to put this behind us, without any harm or embarrassment to our family or to the LU community to which we have dedicated our lives.

During the years that followed, we got to know his family and other loved ones, good people who also really care about him. They shared and confirmed to us that he has periodically demonstrated emotionally unstable behaviors with some destructive tendencies, seemingly in response to his inability to achieve his professional goals. Based on information from other sources, we believe that he may have targeted other successful women in similar ways.

While we tried to distance ourselves from him over time, he unfortunately became increasingly angry and aggressive. Eventually, he began threatening to publicly reveal this secret relationship with Becki and to deliberately embarrass my wife, family, and Liberty University unless we agreed to pay him substantial monies. While this was very upsetting, we had been advised by trusted legal counsel that it was best to maintain contact with this person, as we tried to manage his increasingly erratic behavior and unreasonable demands while extricating ourselves from him both on a personal level and from that real estate transaction.

It was like living on a roller coaster.

While completely dedicating ourselves to Liberty, we were also suffering in silence during our personal time together, while simultaneously trying to manage and deal with this increasingly threatening behavior, which only worsened over time. We were doing our best to respectfully unravel this ‘fatal attraction’ type situation to protect our family and the University.

Even years after the improper relationship had ended, this person continued to be aggressive with Becki and me in a variety of ways. We finally decided that we had to further withdraw completely from him, which resulted in him stepping up his threats to share more outrageous and fabricate claims about us (under the guise of that business entity). He clearly moved forward with this plan through a specific member of the media who has continued to badger us, as well as other members of the media, regarding the false claims about the nature of the relationship based on the individual’s misrepresentations. Over the course of the last few months this person’s behavior has reached a level that we have decided the only way to stop this predatory behavior is to go public.

We have categorically rejected this person’s demands while dealing with him and this particular member of the media who seemed just as obsessed with the prurient, untrue aspects of this story, however fantastic.

Even though I continued successfully working with our entire Liberty team to achieve so many of our goals, I am now dealing with things in a way that I should have done before – including seeking to address the emotional toll this has taken. I shouldn’t have been afraid to admit my vulnerabilities and to reach out for assistance from the mental health professionals who could have alleviated this pain and stress. I am committed to speaking out and sharing with others at Liberty the importance of seeking counseling instead of thinking you need to be tough and try to bear these burdens on your own. I am in the early stages of addressing these issues.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on thine own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will guide straight thy path.’

The trauma of this experience has brought us to a very challenging point in our lives, but we are strong, our faith in Christ is greater than ever, and with His help and with those in the community who we love and who appreciate the impact of forgiveness, we will get through this. We ask for your prayers and support.