According to the Miami Herald, the national evangelical leader struck up an “unusual partnership” with Giancarlo Granda, a handsome, 20-something pool attendant whom Jerry and his 52-year-old wife, Rebecca, befriended at the Fontainebleau hotel in 2012,. Granda soon began traveling with the Falwells, both to their home of Virginia to hike and water ski, and to the Cheeca Lodge in the Florida Keys. Just months after the friendship commenced, the Falwells offered to help Granda, who had practically no business experience, set up a venture in Miami with Falwell's son Trey. Falwell ponied up $1.8 million to set up Granda as part-owner and manager of a $4.7 million South Beach hostel. It was quite incongruous that the president of the largest Christian university in the world, a school that prohibits gay sex, would agree to operate a Miami Beach hostel, regarded as gay friendly, in conjunction with a “pool boy” with virtually no hotel management experience.
The relationship between Falwell, his son, Granda and their silent partners in the hostel deal eventually went sour, resulting in a lawsuit against Falwell. Multiple compromising photos of the Falwells became a central element of the legal battle, and Falwell denied their existence— though many sources could confirm they showed Falwell’s “wife in various stages of undress.” In 2015, as the potential release of the compromising photos was becoming a problem for Falwell (and just before his game-changing endorsement of Trump in the presidential race), Falwell enlisted the help of Michael Cohen. Cohen reportedly then flew to Florida to meet with the attorney of the mystery figure who possessed the photos. The issue was resolved, and the attorney told Cohen that the photos were destroyed.
Liberty University frowns upon co-ed dancing and prohibits alcohol on- and off-campus. To remedy the problem of the embarrassing photos, Liberty staffers said Falwell went to John Gauger (whom they characterized as his “IT guy”) and asked him to downgrade the photos’ prominence on Google searches. A mere two years later, Gauger was promoted to be the university's chief information officer, and 18 months later named deputy CIO. To several university sources, his rapid rise to the executive suite was shocking. “I’m not being disrespectful, but John was a nobody,” one longtime Liberty official said. “And the next thing you know, he’s high up in IT.”
It seems that Falwell couldn't help not getting himself in trouble with other types of racy photos. It is widely known that Falwell has repeatedly shown or texted his male confidants—including at least one employee who worked for him at Liberty—photos of his wife in provocative and sexual poses. At Liberty, Falwell is “very, very vocal” about his “sex life,” in the words of one Liberty official. In a car ride about a decade ago with a senior university official who has since left Liberty, “all he wanted to talk about was how he would nail his wife, how she couldn’t handle [his penis size], and stuff of that sort,” this former official recalled.
More than simply talking with employees about his wife in a sexual manner, on at least one occasion, Falwell shared a photo of his wife wearing what appeared to be a French maid costume, according to a longtime Liberty employee with firsthand knowledge of the image and the fallout that followed. Falwell later explained that he intended to send the image to his and Becki’s personal trainer, Ben Crosswhite, as a “thank you” for helping he and his wife achieve her fitness goals.
Alternative gay news sites later uncovered an unusual Instagram video showing Crosswhite and Falwell working out together. “Come on!” Crosswhite can be heard ordering Fallwell as he pushes him on a sled from behind. “Faster! Come on! Push it-- Let’s go!” Crosswhite demands. “Come on!” The site also uncovered a curious interaction the two had on Instagram:. On March 13, 2013, Falwell posted a picture of a rainbow without a caption. The post received only one comment, which came from Crosswhite and simply reads, “I love rainbows ;)”
Of course, it was another curious social media post that eventually led to Falwell's downfall. In early August, for no apparent reason, Falwell tweeted a photo of himself on a yacht with his fly unzipped and his pants wide open. Beside him was a woman, not his wife, also with her pants wide open. Politico reported that the woman’s name is Kathleen Stone and her Facebook page lists Liberty University as her employer. The photo was purportedly taken during a costume party on a private yacht. The image was shared across Falwell’s social media platforms, but was only up for a few minutes before he deleted it, though not before a screenshot was taken and widely circulated across the internet.
Only a few days later, a video from the yacht party surfaced, showing young shirtless young men, inebriated guests dancing, lounging around, and pretending to smoke cigarettes. In the background of one shot are a bunch of empty red Solo cups one might find at a college house party. Liberty University prohibits alcohol consumption for all students on or off campus.
In an interview with a local radio station in Lynchburg, Virginia, Falwell explained the story behind the viral photo, saying the woman he is pictured beside is his “wife’s assistant,” adding, “She’s a sweetheart and I should never have put it up and embarrassed her.” In explanation of the shirtless men in the background, Fallwell said they were doing a parody of the show Trailer Park Boys. Parody-- right. Got it, Jerry.
It was only a few weeks until the bombshell revelations from Giancarlo the pool boy that finally led to Falwell's ouster. Falwell initially tried to get ahead of the pending disclosures by issuing a statement saying that an unnamed person had been blackmailing him and his wife and that the person’s behavior had reached a level that they "have decided the only way to stop this predatory behavior is to go public."
Soon thereafter, in an interview with Reuters, Granda let loose with all the sordid details that everyone had suspected from the very beginning. Granda disclosed that not only did Falwell know about his affair with his wife, but Falwell was an active participant in it, and Granda had text messages and FaceTime screenshots to prove it.
Grando said that he first met the Falwells when he was 20 years old and that their relationship involved him having sex with Becki while Jerry watched. “Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda, now 29, claimed, adding that they did this “multiple times per year” in hotel rooms in Miami and New York, as well as at the Falwells’ house in Virginia.
The material Granda showed Reuters includes screenshots from what Granda said was a FaceTime conversation he had with the Falwells in 2019. During that call, Granda said, Becki was naked as the two discussed their relationship while Jerry peeked from behind a door. Reuters was able to verify Granda’s description of the screenshots.
Charmed by a pool boy, investor in a gay-friendly hostel, attending circuit parties, giving sweetheart deals to a hunky personal trainer, drunken parties with semi-naked men, voyeuristic cuckolding-- it's certainly been an eventful fall from grace for a hypocritical religious leader.
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