Jerry Falwell Jr. Reportedly Withdrew Resignation After Media Reported It | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire, and written by Ashe Schow.

    After reportedly agreeing to resign from his position as Liberty University president, Jerry Falwell Jr. withdrew his resignation.

    In a statement released Monday night, the university accused Falwell of instructing his attorneys to "not tender the letter for immediate resignation" after the media reported he had agreed to resign. As Liberty stated, Falwell agreed to resign on the first day of fall classes after additional reports surfaced of his involvement in a sordid affair with his wife and a pool boy.

    Those allegations, The Daily Wire previously reported, involved a former pool boy named Giancarlo Granda, 29, who told Reuters that he started having a relationship with Falwell and his wife, Becki, about nine years earlier when he was 20. At the time, Granda said he was working at Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel. Until about 2018, Granda would see Becki several times a year to have sex with her while Falwell watched "from the corner of the room." He provided evidence of the affair to Reuters.

    "Whether it was immaturity, naïveté, instability, or a combination thereof, it was this 'mindset' that the Falwells likely detected in deciding that I was the ideal target for their sexual escapades," Granda said.

    Falwell claimed in a statement to the Washington Examiner that Granda had an affair with his wife but that he was trying to blackmail Falwell's family.

    Liberty University's Board of Trustees asked Falwell to take an indefinite leave of absence on August 7 after he briefly posted a photo of himself on a yacht with his wife's assistant in which they both had their stomachs showing and pants unzipped, The Daily Wire reported at the time.

    "She's pregnant, so she couldn't get her pants up," Falwell said of the photo. "I had on a pair of jeans that I hadn't worn in a long time, so I couldn't get mine zipped either. And so, I just put my belly out like hers." Falwell added that the costumes were "in good fun."

    Around that same time, The New York Times reported that Falwell paid "an undisclosed sum to a young man who claimed he had been offered an ownership stake in a gay-friendly youth hostel, the Miami Hostel, that Mr. Falwell and his wife, Becki, bought in 2013."

    After news of the fair broke, Liberty's Executive Committee met and said a conference call "gathering of the full Board was planned" for Tuesday.

    "Falwell responded by agreeing to resign immediately as President of Liberty University today but then instructed his attorneys to not tender the letter for immediate resignation. The Executive Committee will go forward with its meeting in the morning followed by the full Board," the university's statement said.

    Liberty's acting president Jerry Prevo released a statement saying, "I call upon the University community and supporters to be in prayer for the University and for all its leadership, past, present and future, as we walk with the Lord through this stormy time of transition."