Whew, I don’t know where to start with this Jerry Falwell Jr. stuff. I live in Virginia, and the Falwell family has always been a really big deal in my area. People around here love the other son of the late Jerry Falwell, Jonathan Falwell, who is seen as merely a good, apolitical, charitable-minded minister. But Jerry Jr. was already quite controversial among Southern Baptists and Evangelicals even before his current mess. Maybe even the faithful flock could see that Jerry Jr. was a sweaty hypocritical pervert. But none of them were expecting this! I wasn’t expecting it either. I won’t even try to recap, so here’s what’s happening now:
Jerry Falwell Jr., one of the country’s most prominent evangelicals and embattled leader of one of its largest Christian schools, spoke out Sunday in an extraordinary statement to deny that he and his wife had together been sexually involved with a pool attendant they befriended in Miami. Falwell described the claim as an extortion plot of “increasingly threatening behavior” straight out of Fatal Attraction.
That pool attendant, Giancarlo Granda, told a different story. And he said he had text messages, phone calls and photos to back him up. Speaking with Reuters, Granda detailed how he “developed an intimate relationship” with Falwell’s wife, Becki Falwell, stretching from 2012 to 2018 — with Jerry as an audience.
“Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda said.
Reuters reported that Granda provided “emails, text messages and other evidence” that he said corroborated his sexual allegations. The relationship began in March 2012, while he was working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel. He was 20 years old when he first met the Falwells, he said; public records show Jerry was then 49 and Becki was 45.
Granda, now 29, claimed to Reuters that he would meet up with the Falwells “multiple times per year” at hotels in Miami and New York as well as their home in Virginia. Granda’s interview was published on Monday, but the Falwells knew it was coming. In a statement given to The Washington Examiner on Sunday, Jerry offered a dueling account. He denied the claim of an affair involving both him and his wife, and he said Becki, now 53, was the one who had cheated. Jerry, 58, did not name Granda but he referred to a hotel employee exactly like him.
“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. … 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,” Jerry said in his statement.
“Shortly thereafter,” he said, “Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person.”
But the couple overcame that indiscretion, Jerry said — and continued growing close to Granda and his family and friends. Eventually, he claimed, Granda “became increasingly angry and aggressive” and “began threatening to publicly reveal this secret relationship with Becki … unless we agreed to pay him substantial monies. It was like living on a roller coaster,” Jerry told the Examiner.
Reached for comment by the paper, Granda denied the allegation of blackmail and said “the WHOLE truth will come out.”
“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 [of] desperation,” Granda said.
Falwell Jr. was already on indefinite leave from Liberty University (because of a photo of him partying on a yacht with his pants unzipped), and there are several denials and confirmations that Jerry Jr has now left Liberty permanently, but that’s not the f–king point of any of this. Jerry Falwell’s sons are largely credited with turning Liberty from a backwater college for Evangelicals into one of Virginia’s larger universities, industries and property holders. Jerry Jr. had a big say in the business side of Liberty and the Falwell family’s property dealings. So it’s really big news on a lot of levels.
And the “don’t kink shame” thing is not the point either. If Jerry Jr. likes to watch his wife getting railed by a Miami pool boy, so be it. But he doesn’t get to preach family values and anti-choice bullsh-t and conservative social policies at the same time. And another political wrinkle is that several years ago, Jerry Jr went to Michael Cohen, who was then Donald Trump’s lawyer, to help work out a deal with Granda, who was blackmailing the Falwells. Shortly after Cohen worked out a deal, Jerry Jr. endorsed Donald Trump and threw the full weight of Liberty behind Trump. (I always felt like Jonathan was kind of uncomfortable with that.)
You can read more about the situation here at People, here at the NYT and here at Reuters.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Nah- he looks like he sucks d***.
and is obviously into humiliation.
Wtf? What does someone who sucks d*** look like? In your rush to insult Jr, you’ve said something terribly homophobic.
Sucking d— is nothing to be ashamed of. He looks like a well kept bear with the facial hair and laid back attitude…they are known for enjoying going down for fun! That is what I meant…
As for humiliation kink….these guys who seem on control are likely to be into this. Hope clarifies the problem is not kink, but hypocrisy
Good point. Gay and bisexual men aren’t the only people who suck dick though. Women- including bisexual women- do too. On the left people sometimes play favorites with this issue based on where they’re at in working on their bigotry (not saying that’s what you’re doing). What’s abusive and discriminatory when it’s done to men and boys of any age or sexual orientation is sometimes just seen as a little locker room talk/criticism that women and girls need to shut up and accept by a certain age. Here or anywhere else. Neither should be shamed for it though.
Just like how on 20/20 and Dateline as soon as they start talking about how Christian the couple is, you know the husband did it, you know that with this level of performance something else was going on.
I thought it would be financial crimes but being kinky with the pool boy isn’t that out of left field.
I know right? This is like an episode of Snapped but nobody’s been murdered yet.
The hypocrisy is so outrageous. Liberty University has a crazy code of conduct, and FINES their students for harmless behavior. For example, they couldn’t watch an R-rated movie until 2015 when the rules were relaxed a bit.
The fines a student would have had to pay for the yacht pictures alone would be 9k and somewhere around 350 hours of community service.
Liberty has a gigantic online population which is a real money maker for the school. Think of Liberty as the Sarah Lawrence for kids who’s older siblings went to Bob Jones. They need that large evangelical reach to the rural communities to keep their profit. They lose that when their president is openly breaking the school’s own rules.
Google Crosswaithe Gym, google Falwell Realty, Google the board members. You’ll see it all.
My step sister is an Evangelical and two of my nieces went to Bob Jones, then later Liberty. I’m proud to say both were tossed out for code of conduct violations. My sister was mortified, I was happy. Stupid schools trying to school women on clothing, make up, dating, etc.
Glad Jr is going down.
He certainly didn’t hesitate to throw his wife under the bus! Dude if you were participating and/or watching then you don’t get to lay all the “blame” on your wife for consenting adult activities. What a giant jackass. And he is pushing a Trump on us and preaching about how WE should live our lives while being blackmailed by the pool boy.
Amen! (pun intended) Also, in general, the kind of people that “like to watch” are often the manipulators in the process. They are the ones who instigate the whole situation and then behave like the passive voyeur. My ex husband was always asking me about something similar. He wanted to watch me fuck other guys and I was just grossed out that someone who loves me was able to see me as a piece of property that he owns and that he’d be excited to see someone else stick a dick in me! I never obliged, always said no. Turns out that he actually desperately wanted to suck dick and so that was likely his motivation! Lol. So I am sad that poor Falwells wife is being thrown under the bus, but I will BET he is the one who pushed these wheels in motion, more than her.
WHY DOES A PREACHER NEED A GODDAMN YACHT?!
He’s not Jesus and can walk on water. How else is he supposed to get on the water?!
Same with private jets. They’re not angels, how else are they supposed to fly?!
They could fly commercial and sail on a humble houseboat.
I do love the level of passion in this exchange tho.
Lola is clearly joking lol
Yeah Lola’s joke was hilarious. I was just going along with it. I wouldn’t actually counter a serious statement with the phrase ‘humble houseboat’ 🤣
It’s not his, belongs to a Nascar guy. Liberty sponsors a car
Which may be a problem, as LU is a non-profit, which means their money must be spent only toward charitable institutions.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/20/falwells-yacht-use-under-scrutiny-399424
Also note that there was *another* pool boy…he sued, and settled out of court. He also claimed to have slept with Becki Falwell. (I’m not sure why the link says it’s for an article about snakes … lol, but isn’t that ironic! I double checked and it’s to an article about the suit and settlement.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7551621/San-Jose-cops-hunt-thieves-mistook-bag-four-snakes-lizard-camera-equipment.html
And of course he tries to throw his wife under the bus. I bet in his mind, it IS all her fault. (Raised in a fundamentalist cult, this is the playbook. i’ve seen it in writing.)
Bree – I’m glad you escaped.
The fundy view of women is so…contradictory. Like, men consider themselves superior to women, who are too soft-hearted and can’t think straight because of their silly lady brains. And yet, women are also savvy and manipulative, smart enough to lead good Christian men astray.
Exactly! Men are superior and stronger than women yet a little bit of ankle exposed will have them leaving their wives, children and their godly ways and stray into the arms of a Jezebel, right. That’s why it’s put on the women not to do anything that can cause their brother to stumble, and anything is basically just existing as a woman.
This is all hilarious and gross but I’m not surprised in the least. You could always tell this guy was a sleazy. The ones who protest the loudest are the ones projecting and doing the deeds in the dark. We’ve seen it time and time again.
It’s amazing the twists and turns they will make, when awful men write the rules in such a way that it is never their fault. Always blame the women!
Bree so glad you got away from this kind of lifestyle. And yeah Blaming the wife infuriated me too.
This would be the time for his brother his stand up and say hello no! Silence is worse imo
I read an in depth article about how the brother was part of Liberty a University and expected to continue to be part of running it and one day he came in and brother Jerry had him cut out of the management completely. He knows who his brother is.
Granda is openly gay and not fucking the wife. Or not just her. What has the evangelist movement descended into when you use being cucked as your defence because being gay would be considered worse?
They are truly deranged.
I wondered about that, since I’ve seen it mentioned elsewhere that the youth hostel catered to the gay community. Falwells son is also part owner.
According to Granda in a different article, Falwell approached him to buy out his share of the hostel in 2014/2015, agreed to terms and never paid. Granda trying to get him to go through with the payment is what’s being described as blackmail.
It’s absolutely not just Becki. I bet the boys who have passed through that Miami flophouse have stories…. And maybe we’ll learn more about the deal to sell Liberty real estate to Becki’s “personal trainer” at a discount.
Thank you. Rumors about Jerry and the pool boy have been around for years. Leave your wife out of it.
“Traditional family values”………..
Paragons of virtue! Jesus wept!
This gave me all the lulz yesterday. That part about Michael Cohen is interesting isn’t it? Fallwell’s endorsement of Ted Cruz was certainly more understandable than Trump but here we are. Interesting how that happens eh?
Wondering how many GOP have been blackmailed to support dump. Graham seems like a prime suspect.
I truly believe this is Trump’s playbook…He gets dirt on everyone in his orbit and threatens blackmail at every turn. As I type, it occurs to me that it’s similar to COS. And I believe with every fiber of my being that he’s threatened to out Graham and that’s why ole Linds changed his position on Trump. However, I also believe that Trump is simply driving the Republican agenda of wealth inequality, racism, misogyny, etc. so they let him be.
That’s what his second daddy, Roy Cohn, taught him. Blackmail.
With a Graham it is so silly. Everyone knows he is not heterosexual. At this point he could probably own it and be better recurved than being Trump’s errand boy.
I don’t believe Jr’s version and throwing his wife under the bus is pitiful. Many of us suspected there was dirt on him for him to endorse trump. The light is shining all over the cockroaches now.
Woah! I love it when these phony SOBs who live the high life from grifting others get shown to be liars and hypocrites!! Love it. 🙂
To hell with him for all the years of lying and constantly judging other peoples lives.
Yeah, look how fast he threw the wife under the bus.
Now, can we get some investigative reporter on Joel Osteen?
Osteen and his megachurch..”Mr. Oh, I can’t open my church to help hurricane victims.”
Weasel.
With Hurricane Laura headed our way, the Joel Osteen memes are alive and well on social media lol
Somewhere there are some Reddit accounts from former Liberty students about the Falwell’s befriending, if you will, students. I think there was a link on Datalounge.
Datalounge always has the good gossip for the LGBT community
Hilarious and predictable
No kink shame here. A threesome with a pool boy named Giancarlo doesn’t sound like the worst way to spend an afternoon. Falwell just needs to embrace his freaky side and stop telling everyone else how to behave in the bedroom. The amount of damage he and Liberty U have no doubt done to thousands of students who couldn’t live up to the “no touching courtship pure until marriage only heterosexual sex for procreation” standard that these hypocrites preach must be enormous.
Agreed. The church that I attend push kids to go to Liberty U because it was so wonderful and morally Christian and some parents look down their nose at me because both my kids are going to a public in-state university. Funny how one of my kids has graduated form said university and the other is a junior but their children are back home going to community colleges because they flunked out of Liberty, I can’t wait to hear what the preacher has to say about this…
It’s amazing to me that he threw his wife UNDER A BUS to save himself and NO ONE is calling that out.
Also 1000000000+ this >>>>>> “And the “don’t kink shame” thing is not the point either. If Jerry Jr. likes to watch his wife getting railed by a Miami pool boy, so be it. But he doesn’t get to preach family values and anti-choice bullsh-t and conservative social policies at the same time.”
💯
+1. So many people who privately or not so privately want to push ‘traditional values’ off of themselves/individuals they give a shit about still want the power to use those values against other people. Or to protect people doing that from being criticized for it.
It’s amazing to me that he threw his wife UNDER A BUS to save himself and NO ONE is calling that out.
Also 1000000000+ this >>>>>> “And the “don’t kink shame” thing is not the point either. If Jerry Jr. likes to watch his wife getting railed by a Miami pool boy, so be it. But he doesn’t get to preach family values and anti-choice bullsh-t and conservative social policies at the same time.”
Wonkette and a couple of the gay sites have been covering this story for a while – I’m just surprised it’s finally hit the mainstream and that there have been consequences for Junior.
There isn’t enough holy water to shower myself off with after reading this….BARF!!
His dad referred to the women at my college in the 1980’s (Sweet Briar) the harlots on the hill, due to the then recent approval of Overnight male visitors.
These “Christians” seems to do more “sinning” than anyone else.
Maybe they are deeply into shame.
But they are gross for their judgment, their hypocrisy and their false superiority- that they are somehow “better” for their fake adherence to Victorian morality in the name of a god they themselves don’t seem to honor.
The Harlots on the Hill sounds like an amazing name for something… a band? novel? Idk but I’m interested lol
Really! I want to be one of the harlots on the hill. LOVE this name.
Speaking of his dad., I’m reminded of what Christopher Hitchens said when Falwell Sr. died:
“If you gave Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox.”
True story/real gossip: it’s widely believed by people in the know that Falwell died on the toilet and his staff moved his corpse
Ha!
Ariel, I’m a Randolph-Macon Woman’s College grad (in Lynchburg, along with Liberty U), and was told that Falwell, Sr. referred to us as the “den of witches.” (I think I got short-changed because there was no Dumbledore, Snape, or McGonagall.)
But the ridiculous name calling of women does bring to mind Trump and his favorite go-to of “nasty” women doesn’t it?
I live in Lynchburg and I’m a Liberty Alumni. Words cannot even begin to express how happy I am that he is no longer in charge over the school. Because of his actions, political involvement, and dumb statements, Liberty is looked at as even worse than it already is. I have concerns about my degrees being taken seriously if I move out of the Lynchburg area. I know that Liberty already wasn’t looked on highly because of Falwell Sr, but Jr could have changed the image of the school when his father died and he took over. I’m hoping that Liberty can repair its image by bringing in a new chancellor that is honest, loving, and embraces diversity (all diversity including race, gender, and sex). I greatly enjoyed my time at Liberty. I received a great education and met my life long friends. While I definitely did not agree with everything that Falwell Sr said (I started in 2005, two years before he died), I am thankful for my time at Liberty.
**please don’t jump down my throat. I’m not one of those Trump supporting, gay hating, pearl clutching Christians. Just because I went to Liberty doesn’t mean that I support everything that the Falwells say. **
I confess I kink shame a little. I’m sorry. I can’t control my internal monologue, which is “ew”.
Sinclair Lewis wrote about these charlatans nearly a hundred years ago in Elmer Gantry. With this novel and It Can’t Happen Here, he was very prescient about America. Same as it ever was.
Oh so true, right? I have been thinking of rereading both but I’m living it so I dunno.
I read years ago as another poster above mentiones that Falwell’s hostel catered to gay men. Its sad being cuckolded is better than being gay. Live your life and dont tell others how to live.
At least his wife got to have companionship with someone who is hopefully alot better looking than this fuzzy soft bag of hypocrisy. I have a feeling this is just the beginning of much more to come about about this awful collaborator.
I think you are correct. It was nicely timed to start off the GOP convention week.
The issue here is obviously that this is another case of egregious christian hypocrisy, not that other religions don’t have their hypocrites, too. Religion is like insulation from consequences, and when someone is valuable or powerful, their messes get cleaned up.
How come kinks are above reproach though? Cuckolding itself almost always has a nasty racial element. Just check out the search results on xnxx or your preferred browsing site.
Wonder what they would do if she became pregnant. Family values and all…
I admire people who have found peace and love with religion. But what burns me more than anything are hypocritical people who use religion and then end up being the biggest offenders. People like Falwell, the Catholic Church, The Bakers should all pay for their crimes.
Never heard of this dude until yesterday and his polyamorous/open marriage and this guy’s sexuality is none of my concern. But honestly I never feel sorry for these idiots when the truth of their personal lives comes out. They sell themselves as the ideal, perfect, “moral” way of living and that everyone who doesn’t live the monogamous, heteronormative “Christian” life is going to hell. Turns out their personal lives do not align with what they’re selling. So yeah he deserves to be called out and fall from grace.
Also just SO typical of this guy to deflect and say it was his wife’s fault and how she was led astray and how the cheating was all her doing. Isn’t that what Adam tried to do when God came to chide Adam and Eve from eating from the forbidden apple tree? He was just as involved as his wife. We’re not stupid.
I have absolutely no issues with anyone’s sex life, as long as it doesn’t involve animals and children, and fully consensual.
My problem with this particular trio is the power imbalance.
While 20 is considered being an adult, it’s very worrisome that this young man was working to them, it reeks of grooming. Had the 20 yr old been involved with other 20 yr olds, or people close to his age, I wouldn’t care.
Having your employer watch you have sex with their spouse is all sorts of wrong because of the power dynamics.
Add to that, the age difference, religious elements…it is just disgusting and reeks of sexual manipulation.
F*** this vile man and his wife. They are both gross.
Ah…the sour stench of hypocrisy…I suspect we’re going to hear a lot more. Enough to get thoroughly nauseated.
If they have kids, I feel for them. Imagine trying to go about your day with your parents’ antics, especially these two, hanging over your consciousness?
You can’t force your tuition paying university students to adhere to a particular set of values, on penalty of expulsion, and then use they money those same students pay you to invest in property and businesses that are contingent on making money off of the exact opposite of those values. That not only makes you a hypocrite, that makes you a fucking grifter, a scammer, and a liar.
How much of the money paid to Jerry Falwell Jr’s pool boy came from Liberty University funds? How much of the money used for the business and real estate that this person was placed in charge of came from Liberty University students? How much of the money used to purchase the alcohol for the bar in this business came from those students? This man made bank off of his hypocrisy. That’s the worst thing of all. He should burn in hell for that alone.