Jerry Falwell Jr. Resigns As President Of Liberty University

LYNCHBURG, VA — Jerry Falwell Jr., the embattled president of Liberty University, has resigned from the evangelical Christian university founded by his father.

News outlets reported Monday that Falwell had agreed to resign. But Politico reported later in the day that he told a reporter that he had no intention of resigning. “I have not resigned," Falwell told Politico on a phone call on Monday evening. Asked how the news reports of him resigning had gotten out, he replied, "I don’t know."

But in a phone call to The Wall Street Journal later Monday night, Falwell said he had just sent his resignation letter to the board of the school in Lynchburg.

Falwell's resignation came a day after Falwell told the Washington Examiner that his wife had an affair. Falwell said the man involved had been threatening to reveal the relationship “to deliberately embarrass" his family and Liberty University "unless we agreed to pay him substantial monies.”

In a statement, Liberty University said Monday that on the first day of classes Falwell agreed to resign as president and from the school's Board of Directors, but following media reports about the resignation, he withdrew it.

Falwell already was on an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as president and chancellor of the university following controversial posts on social media.

"Since that time, additional matters came to light that made it clear that it would not be in the best interest of the University for him to return from leave and serve as President," according to the statement from Liberty.

Earlier Monday, before Falwell resigned, Reuters reported that Falwell knew of his wife’s affair and participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur.

In a statement Sunday, Falwell said he was seeking mental health counseling after dealing with fallout from the extramarital affair. He said he was not involved in the relationship.

Earlier this month, Falwell, whose father Jerry Falwell Sr. was founder of the conservative Moral Majority, shared a photo of himself with his pants unzipped aboard a yacht. Falwell, 58, had served as leader of the university since 2007.

Falwell's wife, Becki Falwell, 53, served on the advisory board of the group Women for Trump, which advocates for President Donald Trump's reelection campaign.

Jerry Falwell Jr., a prominent supporter of Trump, was accused of hypocrisy for posting the photo on Instagram. Students at Liberty University, one of the leading evangelical schools in the world, are required to dress conservatively.

The yacht on which the photo was taken is owned by Rick Hendrick, owner of the NASCAR team, Hendrick Motorsports, that Liberty University pays about $6 million a year to sponsor a racecar, according to Politico.

In Monday's article, Giancarlo Granda told Reuters that he was 20 when he met Jerry and Becki Falwell while working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in March 2012. Starting that month and continuing into 2018, Granda told Reuters that the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry Falwell looked on.

On Sunday night, as Reuters was preparing to publish its article, Falwell issued the 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 denied the claim, telling Reuters that he was seeking to negotiate a buyout from a business arrangement he said he had with the couple.

Colby Garman, pastor of the Pillar Church in Dumfries and a Liberty University alumnus, last week published a letter signed by 50 Liberty alumni calling on Falwell's permanent removal, saying his behavior has embarrassed the school and its reputation. On Twitter, Garman said that the allegations about the Falwells are sad and, if true, would be "a reminder of just how deeply entangling sin can become."

Many Christian schools, such as Liberty University, have honor codes that outline what they consider to be Christian standards for sexual conduct, Religion News Service reported Monday.