Disclaimer: The article contains mentions of sexual abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
Celebrity pastor Carl Lentz became very popular among the elite during his tenure at the Hillsong Church. However, in November 2020, Hillsong megachurch founder Brian Houston fired Lentz from his position following discussions about leadership issues. Later, several outlets reported that the former pastor’s extramarital affair was the alleged reason for his firing. While Lentz kept himself out of the spotlight since the firing, he opened up about his time at the megachurch in the FX documentary series The Secrets of Hillsong. The series about the Hillsong church scandal is available to stream on FX and Disney+.
After his firing, Carl Lentz admitted on social media that he cheated on his wife and had an affair. In his post, Lentz revealed that he made choices that had “real and painful consequences.” Additionally, he wrote that he had been “unfaithful” in his marriage and took all the responsibility for his actions. He wrote, “I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life, and held accountable for that. I am deeply sorry for breaking the trust of many people who we have loved serving and understand that this news can be very hard and confusing for people to hear and process.”
A couple of weeks later, a woman claimed herself to be the one with who Lentz had an affair. In an interview with Vanity Fair, the woman revealed that she tried breaking up with him multiple times. However, he kept returning to her and even told her that his wife, Laura Lentz, got to know about their relationship. However, things went further downhill for Lentz after a former nanny accused him of sexual abuse. The couple remained together throughout the controversies and opened up about their struggles in the FX documentary. According to ABC News, Carl Lentz has no desire to join the ministry again and is working on a new podcast.
Where is former Hillsong Church pastor Carl Lentz now?
ABC News reported that Carl Lentz, his wife Laura, and his children had moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The outlet mentioned that the former pastor has been working on releasing a new podcast. During the interview, Laura Lentz discussed how she felt when she heard about cheating accusations against Lentz. Laura felt “broken” and “shattered” after the cheating scandal and wanted to leave her husband. However, she decided to stay when she learned about Lentz’s troubled past.
She said, “I stayed because I loved him. We’re on the phone with a therapist, and she was asking him some questions about his childhood and some of that pain, and he started to talk and try to go through what happened. And he got to a point where he just stopped and his whole body started convulsing.”
In the documentary, the duo also denied all the abuse allegations from their former nanny.
