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“I met Jerry and Becki Falwell at the age of 20, who were working in college at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. Becki and I developed an intimate relationship that lasted from 2012 to 2019 in which Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room, ”Granda, now 29, said in an email.
On Sunday, ahead of a Reuters report on the Granda-Falwell affair, Falwell released her own statement claiming that Granda had an affair with Becki Falwell without her involvement. Granda denied this statement.
“He liked to watch us in person and also from a distance using video cameras. He also listened to our phone calls, ”Granda said.
Falwell’s departure represents a tectonic shift for Liberty, which has been under the leadership of the Falwell family since its founding in 1971. Falwell Jr. has led the university since his father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., died in 2007. Meanwhile, the University has grown to enroll more than 100,000 students per year, many of them online, making Liberty one of the largest online universities in the country. Liberty also embarked on a $ 500 million campus renovation and its endowment increased to $ 1.6 billion.
In August, Falwell came under scrutiny after posting and then removing a photo of himself vacationing on a yacht with his pants unzipped and his arm around his wife’s assistant, angering the members of the conservative Liberty community about Falwell’s behavior.
After posting the photo of the yacht, taken while on vacation in Key West, a chorus of critics emerged, calling on Falwell to step down. Among those who criticized the photo were Republican House Conference Speaker Mark Walker (RN.C.), a former Liberty University instructor who said in a tweet that “Jerry Falwell’s continued behavior Jr is appalling “and that the faculty and students of the university” deserve better. “
Falwell apologized for the photo, saying it was “just for fun” and that he had told his family “I’m going to try to be a good boy from now on.” But within a week, the board took action and placed Falwell on “indefinite leave” from college.
Last week, a group of 50 pastors who are also Liberty alumni wrote a letter to the university’s board, shared with outlet CBN News, which called for Falwell’s final removal and claimed his behavior had “embarrassed the many hard-working elders in our community.” not only to support the reputation of the university, but to support a positive witness for the name of Christ. “
The yacht incident was not the first time that Falwell’s public behavior was seen as out of step with the conservative Christian values embraced by Liberty.
In 2019, POLITICO reported that Falwell and members of his family attended a nightclub in Miami Beach in 2014, apparently holding drinks in their hands in some cases. Liberty students are discouraged from both dancing and drinking, which can lead to expulsion.
Earlier this summer, Falwell apologized after tweeting a photo of a face mask decorated with a photo of a person wearing a Ku Klux Klan mask and a black-faced person. (The photo was intended to tell the story of Blackface Harbor by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.)
Some members of Liberty’s board of directors have also been disturbed by Falwell’s oversight of university funds, sources told POLITICO. This includes Falwell’s repeated trips on a yacht owned by NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick, who owns a racing team that Freedom University spends around $ 6 million a year to sponsor, POLITICO reported. (The use of the yacht was not part of the contract between Liberty and the Hendrick Company, said Hendrick Motorsports, a representative from Hendrick Motorsports said.)
On Sunday, Falwell said Granda, the former pool agent, had grown more and more “angry and aggressive” towards him and Becki over the years.
“He began to threaten to publicly reveal this secret relationship with Becki and to willfully embarrass my wife, family and the University of Liberty unless we agreed to pay him substantial sums,” Falwell said.
Granda said in an email to POLITICO that he was showing up for a variety of reasons, including “resentment over the amounts paid” to her acquaintances by the Falwells to settle a lawsuit regarding their hostel in Miami, and “yes, hot. frustration over Falwell’s refusal to buy my 24.9 percent “stake in the Inn.
On Monday afternoon, Falwell had resigned from his post.
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