Former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz, who was fired from the megachurch amid a sex scandal in 2020, has broken his silence and admitted to having an "inappropriate relationship" with the family's nanny.
The pastor was instrumental in getting Hillsong's New York City branch up and running in 2010, but a decade later was ousted due to "moral failures." A day later he admitted to being unfaithful in his marriage.
Now Lentz is opening up about the cheating scandal, and the allegations levied against him by the family's former nanny and fellow church member Leona Kimes, who claimed she was sexually and emotionally abused by the ousted pastor, whom she did not identify by name, according to People.
Speaking in an episode of FX's new documentary series, "The Secrets of Hillsong," Lentz said, "I am responsible for allowing an inappropriate relationship to develop in my house with someone that worked for us."
However, he went on to claim that "any notion of abuse is categorically false."
"There were mutual adult decisions made by two people who lied profusely, mainly to my wife," he added. "It's an issue because I was a boss, this person was an employee. I'm responsible for that power dynamic and the management of it and the wisdom that goes with it and I failed absolutely miserably."
An attorney representing the Lentz family previously told People in a statement that Carl Lentz and his wife, Laura Lentz, "vehemently deny the allegations and, in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as Leona Kimes has described."
During an episode of the docuseries, Carl Lentz admitted he had "thought about vacating the planet" amidst the scandal. He also claimed to have been sexually abused by a family friend when he was a child.
"I'm tired of this damage, I'm tired of this wreckage, I'm tired of putting people I love through pain," he said. "I did those things, those are on me, I take responsibility for those. The rest of my life, I'll be making amends where I can. And it's also my job to go figure out how the hell that happened."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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