The wife of disgraced former Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz has revealed on Instagram that she suffered from post-traumatic stress and depression in the wake of her husband’s firing from the global megachurch’s New York City location over his infidelity.
She described the past year as “a doozy” for her family.
“I have dealt with so much personally,” wrote Laura Lentz. “I have never experienced anxiety or PTSD until this year. I have struggled with a mild depression for many years, but this year, it got to be so bad that there were days I didn’t want to get out of bed.”
In November of last year, Carl Lentz admitted in an Instagram post of his own that he “was unfaithful” in his marriage to his wife, whom he married in 2003. At the time, he wrote:
This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions. I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura, and my children and taking real-time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need.
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. I would have liked to say this with my voice, to you, in person because you are owed that. But that opportunity I will not have. So to those people, I pray you can forgive me and that over time I can live a life where trust is earned again.
In her own post, Laura Lentz wrote she is “learning to put myself first, focus on my family and grow in my marriage” so she can use her story “to help someone else.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy,” she continued. “Every day, I feel the trauma, the thoughts and memories. And geez, am I grateful for my therapists!”
Following Lentz’s admission of engaging in an extramarital affair, a 34-year-old Muslim woman named Ranin told The Sun she met the ex-pastor at Domino Park in Brooklyn. After Lentz struck up a conversation, she claimed, they began engaging sexually.
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Their relationship, she told the outlet, lasted five months.
Lentz, for his part, was elevated to celebrity status, namely after he baptized pop star Justin Bieber in 2014. In response to the scandal, Bieber distanced himself from the Hillsong preacher, stating on Instagram that his church is Churchome, led by Pastor Judah Smith.
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