God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty is the latest hot documentary series on Hulu.
The movie, which is directed by Cocaine Cowboys Billy Corben and executive produced by Don't Look Up's Adam McKay, explores the relationship between Giancarlo Granda and the Falwells, a highly influential, evangelical political couple.
In Hulu's God Forbid, Granda details when he met Becki Falwell, the wife of former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., whilst working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. He alleged he and Becki Falwell engaged in a seven-year affair, which he claims was acknowledged and even encouraged by her husband, Jerry Falwell Jr.
Jerry Falwell Jr. was the son of Moral Majority televangelist, Jerry Falwell, and after his father's death became the president of Liberty University, the largest evangelical Christian university in the world. He is also influential in political circles an is a well-known endorser of Trump.
In August 2020, the affair between Becki Falwell and her pool boy, Granda, became public when Reuters published a report with Granda's account of his relationship with the Falwells.
In the report, Granda recalled how he would meet the couple at hotels in Miami and New York and at their home in Virginia. He alleged he would have sex with Becki while "Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room." The Falwells have denied Granda's claims, asserting Jerry Falwell Jr. had no involvement in the sexual relationship between Granda and Becki.
Jerry Falwell Jr. also described Granda's claims as an extortion plot in a statement to The Washington Examiner, after a business deal went south.
Soon after the scandal became public, Jerry Falwell Jr. stepped down as president of Liberty University. Newsweek has everything you need to know about Giancarlo Granda today.
Where Is Giancarlo Granda Now?
According to Granda's LinkedIn, he is a real estate operations professional and a recent Georgetown University graduate.
He is also the owner of the Miami Hostel and a managing member of Alton Hostel, LLC.
In October 2022, just in time for the release of God Forbid on Hulu, Granda published the tell-all book, Off the Deep End: Jerry and Becki Falwell and the Collapse of an Evangelical Dynasty.
In Hulu's God Forbid, Granda tells his side of the story, recalling how and when he met Becki and that Jerry was well aware of their affair. At the time of their first meeting, he was 20 years old.
Granda alleged that he and Becki would have sex, whilst Jerry watched and even filmed them. The Falwells have denied Granda's claims, asserting Jerry Falwell Jr. had no involvement. However, in a statement to Vanity Fair, Becki Falwell admitted making sex tapes of her with Granda, with his consent.
In Hulu's God Forbid and in his book, Granda alleges the tapes were Falwell's "unspoken form of blackmail."
In an excerpt of his book provided to People, Granda wrote: "Beyond my own complicity and moral failings, there was the fact that the Falwells had half a dozen tapes of Becki and me having sex, and those were just the ones I knew about. Aside from the embarrassment and chaos they could unleash, they also represented an unspoken form of blackmail, since implicitly, I had to do whatever they wanted. And what they wanted was to keep having sex.
"This eventually would reach a breaking point, and it turned out this was it. When our story finally went public, I said they had been blackmailing me the whole time, and I stand by that, even if they might not articulate it the same way. They always had these tapes hanging over my head, and for every second of that time, I carried a gnawing fear in the pit of my stomach that this would be my downfall. It almost was."
Granda also stated Becki and Jerry Falwell Jr. used him and that he spent a lot of his time managing their tempers and at times, threatening behavior.
Speaking in God Forbid, Granda reflected: "If I would have known that accepting this woman's invitation to go back to her hotel room would have led to a scandal involving the president of the largest Christian university in the world…I would have walked away and just enjoyed my private life."
Newsweek has contacted the Falwells for comment.
God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty is streaming on Hulu now.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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