Jerry Falwell Jr. confirms he HAS resigned from Liberty University - despite denying earlier claims he had quit - after pool boy said the evangelist watched him have sex with his wife several times a year
Jerry Falwell Jr. confirmed on Monday night that he had resigned from evangelical Liberty University - ending a bizarre episode in which he was said to have quit, and then denied it.
Falwell told ABC that his resignation was official, and he was stepping down as chancellor of the Lynchburg, Virginia-based Christian school, after a pool boy claimed the evangelist watched while he had sex with his wife.
A senior school official earlier on Monday night said he had resigned from his leadership post, but Falwell then told several news outlets that he does not plan to leave permanently.
A school official confirmed on Monday - the first day of classes for students - that Falwell had agreed to resign, The Washington Post reported.
Falwell then said the reports of his resignation were 'completely false'.
'I have not resigned. I will be on indefinite leave,' Falwell later told POLITICO.
When a reporter asked a spokesperson for Liberty University whether Falwell had indeed resigned, the spokesperson answered affirmatively.
The university said a statement would be 'forthcoming.'
Reached later on Monday, the spokesperson said: 'I cannot say anything and I can only give a statement from the Board if they give me a statement.'
Falwell said he had told the Liberty Board of Trustees earlier in the summer that he needed a break from work.
He told Virginia Business that the board agreed he take a 'leave of absence' after a 'stupid picture' emerged on Instagram showing him and his female assistant with their pants unzipped and bellies sticking out.
'I don't care what you call it. I've been at this for so many years and under so much stress, I decided I needed a three-month break,' Falwell said.
He said he's 'enjoying it, except for the press.'
The controversy erupted after Giancarlo Granda, 29, spoke out on Monday in an interview with Reuters where he contradicted Falwell's claims that he was trying to extort the pair and had an affair with his wife, and gave more details about his alleged sexual relationship with them.
Granda claims that he had sex with Jerry Falwell Jr's wife Becki several times a year for six years and that he watched 'from the corner of the room'
He said he was 20 when he met the pair in Miami and that starting in March 2012, he had sex with Falwell's wife Becki several times a year in hotel rooms, sometimes while Falwell Jr. watched, until 2018.
'Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,' Granda said.
During that time, the trio went into business together with an LGBTQ-friendly hostel in Miami that Granda runs.
He said that he was used as a 'target' for the couple's 'sexual escapades' and that he was not trying to extort the pair, even though he threatened to go 'the kamikaze route' if they didn't give him what he wanted.
He sat down with Reuters earlier this month. They went to Falwell Jr. with Granda's claims, which is what prompted his statement on Sunday night.
Now 29, Granda described the liaisons as frequent - 'multiple times per year' - and said the encounters took place at hotels in Miami and New York, and at the Falwells' home in Virginia.
On Sunday night, Falwell Jr. - a prominent Trump endorser and one of the most influential right-wing Christians in America - told The Washington Examiner that he and his family were being extorted.
He said Becki had an affair with Granda that he had 'no involvement in', and that he'd chosen to forgive his wife.
Granda claims the opposite.
He showed Reuters texts from Becki where she said she was 'missing him like crazy' and also gave an audio recording of her complaining about hearing about the other women Granda had been intimate with.
Falwell Jr. was also on the call and told him that he was going to make his wife 'jealous'.
Giancarlo and Jerry. They met in Miami in 2012, when Giancarlo was 20
'He's like telling me every time he hooks up with people. Like I don't have feelings or something,' Becki said.
Falwell then chimed in: 'You're going to make her jealous.'
Granda replied: 'I'm not trying to do that.'
He insists he was trying to negotiate a buyout from the hostel business and that he was not extorting the pair.
In one text to them, he said: 'Since you're okay with ruining my life, I am going to take the kamikaze route.
'It really is a shame because I wanted to reach a peaceful resolution and just move on with our lives but if conflict is what you want, then so be it.'
In his statement on Sunday night, Falwell Jr. said, in part: 'Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved...it was nonetheless very upsetting to learn about.'
His friendship with the Falwells eventually soured, he said, in part because he wanted to dissolve his ties with the couple and fell into a business dispute with them.
Granda first emerged as a figure in the Falwells' circle two years ago, when BuzzFeed News reported that the couple had befriended Granda and gone into business with him, buying a Miami Beach youth hostel in 2013.
At the time of the BuzzFeed article, a representative of the Falwell family said Granda was 'offered a share' in Alton Hostel LLC because he lived in Miami and would act as a manager of the youth hostel.
Corporate records show that he currently has a stake in that venture.
After Reuters presented its initial reporting early last week to the Falwells, a lawyer for Jerry Falwell, Michael Bowe, said the evangelical leader 'categorically denies everything you indicated you intend to publish about him.'
On Sunday night, however, as Reuters was preparing to publish this article, Jerry Falwell issued a statement to the Washington Examiner in which he said that his wife had had an affair with Granda and that Granda had been trying to extort money from the couple over the matter.
Granda denies any such intent, saying he was seeking to negotiate a buyout from a business arrangement he says he had with the couple.
Granda, circled left, with the family in an undated photo. They met in 2012 in Miami. He runs a hostel they invested in
Granda with the family on a trip to Washington DC in September 2018, before, both sides say, their relationship soured
Jesus Fernandez Sr and Jesus Fernandez Jr sued, alleging that Falwell and Granda cut them out of the deal involving a hostel in Miami, Florida. The deal was settled in 2019
Falwell, picture above with his wife and Trump, flew Granda in 2012 to Liberty University to meet the president
