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Jerry Falwell Jr. Sex Scandal Was Achilles Heel in Falwell’s Quest for Political Power, According to New Documentary

Later, when Granda and his girlfriend broke up, his relationship with Becki again turned sexual. 

Describing his budding relationship with the Falwells’ children, who were close to him in age, Granda said that they saw their parents’ relationship with Granda as something “admirable.”

“They had no idea that their dad liked to watch his wife get f–ked in a room by a younger guy,” Granda said. “The lies just started building up. I had to lie to my girlfriends. I had to lie to my family. It was exhausting. If you look at the Falwells, they were living their best life. They were professionals at living a double life.” 

“I didn’t like who I was becoming,” Granda recounted. As the affair progressed, fear of being exposed rose to the forefront of his mind. 

In 2014, those fears began to come to fruition, as Granda said that the men who brokered the deal on the Miami property, Jesus Fernandez and Jesus Ferndandez Jr., threatened legal action against him. They were seeking a 50% stake in the business and using Granda’s affair with Becki as leverage. Granda said that the Fernandezes were in possession of compromising images of him and Becki. 

This is when Michael Cohen, personal lawyer to Donald Trump, got involved to ensure that the affair was not publicly revealed, according to Granda’s retelling. 

Granda later described an interaction with Falwell Jr. wherein Falwell told Granda that he wanted to buy him out of the Miami property. Falwell Jr. further expressed that Donald Trump was seeking to secure Falwell’s endorsement for president prior to announcing his candidacy. As Granda put it, with the Falwells becoming more involved in politics, they needed “loose ends tied up.”

Under the leadership of Jerry Falwell Sr., Liberty University had become an important ally to pro-life Republicans seeking to garner widespread political support. Jerry Falwell Jr.’s endorsement of Trump would serve to propel Trump’s legitimacy as a presidential candidate among evangelicals. 

It also catapulted Falwell Jr. into the national eye. 

Following Trump’s election, Liberty University became increasingly politically active, with Falwell Jr. once referring to the school as “the Fox News Network of the academic world.” While Falwell Jr. was offered a position in Trump’s cabinet, he declined. Granda said that Falwell Jr. told him that it’s “better to be a kingmaker than a king.” 

Granda said that as Falwell increased in political influence, he felt concerned for his own safety if he were to publicly disclose anything related to his sexual relationship with Jerry and Becki, saying, “If they wanted to make me disappear, they could do it, without a trace.”

As Trump’s presidency continued, investigative journalist Aram Rosten began doing background research on Falwell Jr. and discovered the litigation against him and Granda with regard to the Miami hostel property.