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Loading ...Haggard wife says she knew about his ’struggles’
01.28.2009 10:41am EST
(Chicago, Illinois) Former evangelical pastor Ted Haggard’s wife says she knew about his struggles with same-sex attraction for years and felt he was “winning the battle” before a scandal involving a male prostitute triggered his downfall in late 2006.
Gayle Haggard makes the remarks in an appearance with her husband on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to air Wednesday. She said she was shocked when Haggard first told her the truth about the allegations against him.“The first words out of my mouth were, ‘Who are you?’” she said, according to a publicity release issued Tuesday by Harpo Productions.
However, Gayle Haggard also said her husband told her early in their 30-year marriage that he “struggled with some thoughts.”
“I felt it was the thing that could destroy Ted if he gave in to it,” she said. “So I prayed for him and I felt as though he was winning the battle.”
Haggard, 52, resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., after the male prostitute went public. Haggard confessed to “sexual immorality.”
The scandal widened in recent days with disclosures that Haggard also admitted to an “inappropriate” relationship with a church volunteer, Grant Haas, who was 22 at the time.
Haas told KRDO in Colorado Springs that Haggard performed a sex act in front of him and sent him illicit text messages. He informed New Life Church shortly after the scandal broke, and the two parties reached a settlement in 2007 that included a confidentiality agreement. Haas went public as Haggard is heavily promoting an HBO documentary about his time in exile.
Haggard has repeatedly talked out the “complexity” of his sexuality. He certainly made OUR sexuality cut and dried!
http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9737380
His downfall was thinking he could “get over” being gay!!
Lady, you need to get out of this sham and get tested for STD’s.
I wish everyone would leave him alone. Why punish him for his sexual orientation?
Lenworth,
There is nothing hilarious or even good about this situation. Sad and pathetic are more like it. I see in the Washington Post a rather somber picture of his wife, his children some of them teens and himself. Noone looking relaxed or happy in this photo. They all look like they are trying to come to terms with things. This is an awful mess and not the least bit funny, with both a deceived wife and deceived half-grown kids. Maybe for the kid’s sake, his wife’s and his own, he needs to leave so she can meet someone else while she still has some vitality and some ability to attract a man who is only interested in being with a woman and who would make her and the kids the center of his life. Ted is conflicted about his sexuality and she and the kids don’t need that kind of chaos in their lives.
Ted, sooner or later your cravings for men will return, so start a family with another man who is taking care of a half-grown young person of his own. After all you want family but you might as well pursue that with a man, since you seem to have some desire in that direction already.
Gay people is not lost in the battle
Even If Former evangelical pastor Ted Haggard become Gay that make him Happy for who He is, not what he..
It is called “Crisis Identity.
Ted need find himself either Gay or Straight that make him still winning in this battle…Because Gay can still Pray too.. Thank you~ Jackie
I tried to “pray the gay away” in my life. After five wasted years, I decided God did not care. Also I was blessed with the wisdom of not wanting to screw up other peoples lives. (The woman, kids). These flat earth people need to come out of their “Dark Ages” thinking that it is a choice.
As for poor Gayle (ironic first 3 letters to that name) While I do feel sad that she was betrayed, In return for her keeping her head in the sand she was able to live a life of status in her community, and I am sure at a much higher standard than most Americans.
Tom in Long Beach