It was an ’emotional affair’ not a sexual one, Pastor John Gray tells ‘The Real’
The megachurch preacher denies having a physical infidelity and wanted to appear on the talk show to clear up any other rumors about his marriage
Pastor John Gray addressed longstanding rumors on the syndicated talk show The Real, admitting to having an emotional affair but said it never turned sexual.
Gray, who leads Relentless Church in Greenville, S.C., and his wife, Aventer, joined the ladies on The Real on Tuesday, to address cheating allegations as well as the $200K Lamborghini gift that the pastor brought Aventer to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary – a present that caused a stir on social media.
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“Over a year ago, my wife and I were in a very difficult place in our marriage, and in that time, I began to converse with someone, other than a counselor, other than a pastoral leader, which is where I should have taken my issues and challenges, and began to converse, and I was even in the presence of that person one time,” Gray said on The Real. “But being in the presence of someone is not the same as sleeping with them. I did not sleep with anyone.”
Gray said he has heard the rumors — about a sexual affair that resulted in a baby — and wanted to let everyone know those rumors are false.
“There’s no baby, there’s none of that,” Gray said, adding that “it’s important for me to take responsibility for the areas where I did come up short. Sharing things about my marriage outside of my wife and outside of trusted counselors is an emotional affair. It was wrong. I take responsibility for that.”
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But he made clear he won’t own up to something he didn’t do.
“I will not take responsibility for that which I did not do. As a pastor, it’s important for people to know that when I get up in that pulpit, I come not as a perfect man, but as a broken man, which is why we talked about these very things at the first sermon of our church. People act like this is something, you know, brand new, but we’ve walked through this, we have peace. But people don’t,” Gray shared on The Real.
“So again, the genesis of this was over a year ago, but we talked about this in May at our church, and so we’re moving forward, we’re believing God, that this will be an opportunity for other people to heal. But I do want to set that record straight.”
Gray and his wife also addressed the Lamborghini controversy. Apparently, he says someone (but neither of them) snapped a photo and posted it to social media — where a lot of people accused them of flaunting their wealth and using church funds to pay for the vehicle. Not so, Gray said. He said he simply wanted an extra special gift to commemorate their eighth year of marriage and denied any church money was used for the vehicle.
“Not one cent,” he exclaimed. “This is a husband blessing his wife, because that is what a man should do.”
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