Jerry Falwell Jr. Denies He's Resigning From Liberty University Amid Multiple Scandals

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. on Monday denied he is stepping down from his position amid multiple public scandals.

“I have not resigned. How did those reports get out? I don’t know,” Falwell told Politico.“I have not resigned. I will be on indefinite leave.”

A school official on Monday had told the Associated Press that Falwell was set to resign and said a formal statement was forthcoming. A Reuters report published earlier on Monday revealed that Falwell and his wife had an alleged years-long sexual relationship with a business associate, Giancarlo Granda.

Falwell, 58, had been on leave from his position since Aug. 7, after he posted a controversial photo on Instagram. The now-deleted picture shows Falwell’s pants unzipped and his arm around a woman other than his wife while vacationing on a yacht.

Granda said he met the Falwells in 2012 while he was working as a pool attendant at a Miami hotel. Granda, who was 20 at the time, then shortly began a sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki.

Jerry Falwell Jr. would frequently watch Granda’s sexual encounters with his wife, with the three meeting “multiple times a year” at hotels in New York and Miami, and at the Falwells’ home in Virginia. The relationship continued into 2018 but ended following a business dispute between Granda and the Falwells.

Jerry Falwell’s actions have also sparked over controversies. In June, he was denounced by Black students and Liberty alumni after he tweeted a photo showing one person in blackface and the other in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe. He also made the choice in March to reopen Liberty’s campus in Lynchburg, Virginia, despite health experts' calls for school closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He has served as the Liberty’s president since 2007, following the death of his father, televangelist and conservative activist Jerry Falwell Sr. The university, founded in 1971, has extremely strict rules, banning students from premarital sex and R-rated movies.

In recent years, Jerry Falwell Jr. has become an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump. He has called Trump a “blue-collar billionaire” and “one of the greatest visionaries of our time.”