|
|
Reality TV star Gizelle Bryant discusses ex-husband Pastor Jamal Bryant’s marriage-ending affairs
|
|
|
|
Article By Karen Walters // Empowering Everyday Women Ministries News
|
|
Posted June 1, 2017
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Credit: Getty/EEW Magazine
|
|
|
|
When married Christians work together in God’s Kingdom, that doesn't mean they are perfect, without sin and able to weather any storm that comes against their marriage, especially not if one party is cheating.
In 2007 Pastor Bryant, leader of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Maryland engaged in an extramarital affair that resulted in the termination of his marriage to his leading lady Gizelle.
Now, ten years later, the scorned ex-wife, who is also one of the stars of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Potomac,” is opening up about why she left after eight years.
“The pastor cheated,” confirmed Gizelle in a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, responding to popular radio personality Lenard McKelvey, known professionally as Charlamagne Tha God, who likes to stoke the flames of controversy.
“Did he cheat with a man or a woman?” Charlamagne further pried.
“It was a woman,” answered Gizelle, 46.
Charlamagne then admitted his true motivation for his line of questioning, saying, “I just like to hear about pastors doing dirt so they can’t accuse us regular folks. If a pastor’s flesh is weak, imagine how weak mine is.”
When Angela Yee, another Breakfast Club co-host, asked if the story about Pastor Bryant impregnating a 17-year-old girl while married to Gizelle was true, she said, “No, not that I know of, but I’m not in his business like that. But he’s a man.”
EEW editors would like to note that the Baltimore-based Empowerment Temple leader has previously stated that the allegations were “categorically and completely untrue.”
Though Gizelle admitted she still has “no idea” who her former husband did cheat with, she suggested his repeated violations of their covenant of marriage was too much to bear. This, according to the former first lady, is why she packed up her belongings and her children, and moved on.
“I had little kids. So, I have three kids. At the time I had two one-year-olds and a three-year-old. Three girls. They’re beautiful. And I said, ‘I’m not doing this. I’m not going to be, you know, just being disrespected,’” she explained.
The repeated philandering helped Gizelle make up her mind to choose a better life for herself and her young babies. “I felt like it was like a lifestyle as opposed to you made a mistake one night, so I just didn’t want to sign up for that,” she said.
When Breakfast Club host DJ Envy asked Gizelle whether she thought Jamal Bryant was “faking it as far as his lifestyle” insinuating that the preacher might not have been a true vessel for the Lord, Gizelle quickly said, “I believe that he’s a man of God, but any man who is here on earth makes mistakes.”
When grilled about why she chose to give up on the marriage, rather than give her husband another chance, Gizelle stressed again, “I had to make a choice for me and my children. And I actually didn’t leave that quickly. I waited about a year and then I said, ‘I’m out.’”
She continued, “I decided to give it a year to say to myself, ‘Okay am I going to work this thing out? Is this going to happen when my kids [are] in high school and then I leave? I just felt like it was time.”
Now that the entertainment personality has moved past that turbulent period in her life, Gizelle is gearing up to release what she calls “a hot, juicy, faith-based book.” And if you’re wondering what she’ ll discuss inside its pages, she said, “It’s about all the tea I have to spill on the faith-based world. I was in that world so I have inside dirt [and] information. Yeah, it’s going to make you drop your Bible.”
As the back-and-forth chatter went on, the radio interview turned toward pastors that abuse their position of influence.
Charlamagne noted, “It is a lot of power when you’re a pastor though, man, because, like you’re a pastor. These people believe in you. You’re alone with these women. The flesh is weak. Some of these women feel like they want to be intimate with you because they feel like they want your strength in a way.”
Gizelle ceded the point, saying, “Sometimes they take advantage of it—the pastor takes advantage of it. And sometimes, some are good, but then some can’t handle all of that pressure.”
Want more faith-based news like this from Empowering Everyday Women Ministries’? Visit weekdays for more updates.
|
|
|
|
|