Jerry Falwell Jr.’s final chapter at Liberty University was marked by self-destructive episodes and capped by a sensational tabloid sex scandal. V.F.’s gabrielsherman details the former university president’s surprising rise and dizzying fall.
that Liberty Online staffed a sales department of 300 telemarketers, who worked for low pay and got only a 45-second break between calls. They aggressively recruited students, who were often saddled with debt. By 2010, digital enrollment topped 50,000 and annual revenues reached $420 million.
Jerry said the first time he learned of the affair was eight months after he and Becki met Granda. In December 2012, Becki seemed distant and melancholic for reasons Jerry couldn’t figure out. “I would see her crying around the house,” Jerry recalled. A few days after Christmas, Jerry walked in on Becki in tears in their bedroom. He asked why she was sad.Jerry remembered there was a long pause. Then Becki told him she was cheating on him. Jerry had to suppress the urge to yell.
That summer, Jerry and Becki flew to Miami a few times to scout properties. They liked the idea of owning a business in Florida. It would give them a reason to spend time at the beach, where they felt free from prying eyes in Lynchburg. “Miami was a nice place to get away and feel like another country,” Jerry told me. “I thought, Nobody knows us,” Becki added. “I can have a drink by the pool.… We just felt at home.
Becki told Granda that Jerry knew about them. “Giancarlo was very worried Jerry or my boys would beat him up,” Becki said. Becki said Granda shouldn’t be scared. Everyone would try to make the awkward arrangement work. Granda apologized to Jerry the next time they were all together. “He said, ‘I hope you’re okay.’ And I said, ‘I’m dealing with it,’ ” Jerry recalled. “The only way I could do it was to detach. I let it go on. I’m partly to blame.
Jerry and Becki’s fears only intensified. That fall, Becki’s lawyers were made aware that topless pictures of her were circulating among people who were party to the suit. The photos showed Becki posing on a tractor at the Falwells’ farm. Jerry told me he had taken them years earlier on his phone. “We were just playing around,” he said.
Cohen didn’t need to coerce the endorsement, because Jerry was already supporting Trump behind the scenes and echoing his rhetoric. Three days after the December 2, 2015, mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Jerry brought a .25-caliber pistol onstage at an all-school assembly. “If more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,” he said. Jerry also let Liberty’s IT chief, John Gauger, do consulting for the Trump campaign.
DeMoss’s resignation came a month later and inspired others. Liberty alumni organized a “Return Your Diploma” Facebook group to protest Jerry’s defense of Trump’s Charlottesville remark about there being “very fine people” on both sides; 700 graduates signed up. Jerry and Becki decided it was best to keep Granda in the fold. “The idea was, you keep friends close and your enemies closer,” Becki said. In the fall of 2017, Jerry wrote Granda a recommendation letter for Granda’s application to Georgetown’s real estate master’s program. Jerry and Becki were thrilled when Granda got in. He was 27 and seemed to be moving on with his life independent of the Falwells. When Granda drove from Miami to Washington, D.C.
Granda’s emotional state deteriorated and he talked about suicide. Becki shared a text Granda sent around this time: “My life is absolutely ruined. When they find my lifeless body hanging in the woods, please make sure [my dog] Logan is returned to my family. Goodbye.” But Jerry couldn’t break his destructive social media habit. On Sunday morning, August 2, Jerry was relaxing with Becki and Caroline at the farm when he announced he had posted a photo on Instagram and held the phone up. So much was wrong about the picture: Jerry had his pants unzipped and what looked like a rum and Coke in one hand, with his other arm wrapped around a pregnant woman with her shorts unzipped and stomach showing.my buddy and I went to a convenience store and I drank a few beers.
A day later, Jerry says a member of Liberty’s board called Jerry and said if he didn’t step down, he would be fired.Since his resignation, Jerry has been locked in a bitter feud with Liberty. The board fired Jerry’s son Trey and barred Jerry and Becki from setting foot on campus, even though their daughter is a senior and Jerry’s parents are buried there.