Ex Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz's Alleged Mistress Shares New Details About Their Affair

KEY POINTS

MTV's "Ex on the Beach" exposes new details of Carl Lentz's alleged affair
His alleged mistress, Ranin Karim, said their relationship was "toxic"
Lentz was fired from Hillsong Church in 2020 due to alleged "moral failures"

A woman claiming to have had an affair with former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz dropped new details about their relationship in the fifth season premiere of MTV’s “Ex on the Beach,” which aired Thursday.

In her self-introduction, Ranin Karim said that while people refer to her as Lentz’s mistress, she’s
“more like a mystery woman.” “I’ve been in toxic relationships,” she said. “A lot of men sell you a dream. You know, I’m broke. I don’t need to buy any more dreams.”

At one point during the episode, Karim was asked about her previous relationships and she once again confirmed she had a relationship with Lentz. “We had an affair for like five months,” she told David Barta, whose father is a Baptist minister.

“Oh, sh**, and he’s like married and everything?” he asked Karim, to which she answered, “I think 17 years, so yeah.”

The Hillsong Church fired Lentz in November 2020 due to alleged “moral failures.” In a statement issued by the church’s founder Brian Houston at the time, he said the decision to terminate Lentz came following discussions about “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.” However, he did not provide further detail, saying it would not be appropriate.

The following day, Lentz acknowledged in a statement on Instagram that he had been unfaithful in his marriage, “the most important relationship in my life.”

“This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions,” he captioned a photo of himself with his wife and three children. “I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura, and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need.”

Less than two weeks after Lentz’s admission, Karim came forward and identified herself as the mistress of the Hillsong pastor in an interview with Vanity Fair. She also opened up about their affair in the Discovery+ docuseries “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed,” where she claimed she met Lentz at a park in Brooklyn sometime in May 2020.