Author Toni Collier is opening up about her divorce from former Hillsong Atlanta Pastor Sam Collier, alleging that her marriage ended after Sam was extorted by a transgender individual from whom Sam had solicited prostitution.
Sam Collier is an author and pastor who was the first African American to serve as a senior pastor of a Hillsong Church. Hillsong Atlanta was announced in 2020 and began holding services the following year.
In March 2022, Sam announced his resignation from Hillsong amid ongoing scandal surrounding several Hillsong churches and Brian Houston, the church’s founding global senior pastor. Hillsong Atlanta subsequently dissolved, and the Colliers launched Story Church in its place.
In December 2023, Toni announced that she was pursuing a divorce from Sam, saying, “After years of discovering and enduring repeated acts of infidelity, l’ve chosen to end my marriage with Sam.”
In a separate statement, Sam called Toni “a liar and abuser.” He subsequently retracted that statement but denied engaging in infidelity.
Sam is now the pastor of Christian Cultural Center Atlanta.
In a recent interview with Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae, Toni alleged that Sam was unfaithful from the second year of their marriage onward. The couple was married for eight years. She had previously determined to remain in the marriage but expressed that she reached a breaking point shortly before publicly announcing her intention to seek a divorce.
“I got a call from my ex-husband in September of 2023—I was filming a show with a great Christian network, bopping around, living my best and most glorious life,” she recounted, “only to wake up at 6 a.m. and to have to watch my husband tell me that he was being extorted by someone he hired for sexual favors—tens of thousands of dollars.”
In a previous appearance on the “Girls Gone Bible” podcast, Toni specified that “it was a transgender prostitute…and I guess they got a video of him. And so they were using this video to extort him.”
According to Toni, the individual threatened to come to Story Church and expose Sam.
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Toni told Lecrae, “And then I had to fly home and parent my kids, knowing that this had to be the last time.”
