DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — The wife of Atlanta-area megachurch founder Bishop Eddie Long has filed for divorce after more than 20 years of marriage, but says she plans to withdraw the petition.
Vanessa Long filed for divorce Thursday in DeKalb County Superior Court in suburban Atlanta. She and Eddie Long, the pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, married on March 10, 1990. According to the divorce petition, the couple is living in “a bona fide state of separation.”
On Friday, Vanessa Long said in a statement issued through the church that she plans to withdraw the divorce petition. Her statement says, “I love my husband. I believe in him and admire his strength and courage.”
She says that the divorce filing “followed years of attacks in the media that frustrated and overwhelmed me.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.