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In June 2020, movie director Billy Corben received an email with a subject line that read: “Giancarlo Granda-pool boy-Jerry Falwell Jr. and Donald Trump-story.”
Immediately, his next film project was born.
The message was sent from a then-despondent Giancarlo Granda, a handsome ex-pool boy at luxe Miami Beach hotspot, Fontainebleau.
He was eager to unveil the sordid secrets of a six-year sexual threesome he’d allegedly been locked into at age 20 by evangelical Liberty University president and diehard Trump endorser, Jerry Falwell Jr., and his wife Becki, now 60 and 55, respectively.
Corben’s resulting documentary, “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty,” is out on Hulu Tuesday. In it, Granda, now 31, alleges that the publicly conservative Falwells drove him to the brink of suicide through a manipulative chokehold of sex, power and money.
“This isn’t just a titillating story about a cuckold throuple,” Corben, of “Cocaine Cowboys” and “Screwball” filmmaking fame, told The Post. “It’s about a 50-year, multigenerational dynasty that had an outsize influence on U.S. presidential politics and domestic and foreign policy.”
He added that “The Falwells exploited Christians and Christianity for their own power and profit,” he added.
Jerry Falwell Jr. did not respond to The Post’s request for a comment. However, he has previously told other outlets that he was not involved in Becki and Granda’s sexual encounters.
When he and Becki supposedly first set their sights on Granda during their family vacation with kids Trey, Wesley and Caroline on March 13, 2012, Jerry had already established himself as the “quirky” yet Bible-beating commander-in-chief of Liberty, in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The sprawling, gospel-touting institution — valued at nearly $2 billion — was the brainchild of his establishmentarian father: televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr. He founded the private college with the purpose of “training soldiers for Christ” in 1971, and died in 2007.
Like his dad, Jerry staunchly enforced the school’s strict code of conduct, which barred students, faculty and staff from drinking alcohol, swearing and engaging in premarital sex. Any and all infractions were punishable by fines of up to $300.
But while on brief sabbatical from their holy grounds, Jerry and Becki allegedly turned Miami, which Corben calls “a sunny place for shady people,” into their playground of sin.
“The Falwells certainly availed themselves to our amenities here,” Corben said. “They treated the Ten Commandments like a bucket list. It was almost like they were checking off a box every time they [broke another commandment].”
In the doc, Granda, from Westchester, Fla., recalls noticing a bathing suit-clad Becki snapping pictures of him while he was cleaning the pool. She was 45 at the time. After lavishing him with flirty banter and compliments, he claims the mother of three invited him back to her hotel room for sex with the caveat, “my husband wants to watch.’”
Without an inkling of the couple’s political and religious clout, Granda, who repeatedly refers to his former self as a “horny 20-year-old,” agreed.
The trio allegedly trotted off to a motel near the Fontainebleau for their inaugural tryst, out of view from prying eyes and the Falwell brood. Once behind closed doors, Granda says Jerry gave him his blessing and pulled up a chair to witness him and Becki engage in oral sex.
“[Jerry] goes to corner of the room, takes off his jeans and starts j- -king off,” says Granda. (The Falwells have previously denied claims that Jerry watched Becki’s intercourse with Granda.)
From there, Granda, who was then earning $200 a day as a pool attendant, says in the doc that the wealthy holy rollers roped him into an emotionally-charged sexual relationship, luring him in with trips on their private jet, interludes with their high-profile friends like Trump and promises of 50% equity share in a $4.65 million hostel in the heart of Miami.
An enchanted Granda leaped on the deal. “It felt like I was living in a movie,” he says.
Then, in July 2012, Granda tapped a friend to help him land the commercial property that would become the Miami Hostel. The vibrant property was furnished with an Italian restaurant, a liquor store and accommodations for overnight boarders.
“Tito and his dad were both very curious about what was going on [between me and the Falwells,” says Granda. “[I’d say] ‘They just want to help me out,’ but obviously that didn’t make sense. They were convinced that there was more to it, and they were right.”
And as Granda’s alleged sexual and professional dealings with Jerry and Becki grew, so did the role that he played in their lives.
Rather than being a secret lover that they kept out of sight, the Falwells showcased him like a trophy. Granda says in the doc that he became close to their kids — with whom he was already close in age. He joined their family on holidays and special occasions.
And when Trump gave the convocation address at Liberty University in September 2012, Granda sat front row.
During his speech, Trump advised the student body: “Don’t let people take advantage [of you], get even.”
The would-be president’s words struck a chord with Granda.
For the next few years he claims to have continued peacefully managing the Miami Hostel, making love to Becki while Jerry watched and enjoying the spoils of life as their lover.
But, according to the doc, in October 2014, two individuals involved in the Miami business deal her threatened to publicly expose tawdry photos images of Granda and Becki engaging in sexual acts.
The well-connected Falwell tapped Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to mitigate the situation. And, for a while, it seemed Cohen’s influence had vanished the racy snapshots and looming lawsuit.
But the threat of having his sexual proclivities exposed to his faith-based flock let Jerry to buy out Granda’s stake in the hostel. Per screenshots of texts in the doc, he promised to pay Granda at least $600,000 and give him equity stake in a La Quinta hotel location in Virginia in exchange for his interest. Granda agreed to the buy out.
But after several months, Granda says he never received a payment.
And in 2016, when Jerry became the first evangelical leader to openly endorse Trump’s run for president, Granda had been virtually excommunicated out of the Falwells’ lives.
In 2018, investigative reporter Aram Roston— who’d launched a probe into Jerry after his Bible-verse laden backing of Trump — uncovered the hidden 2014 legal documents between the Fernandezes, the Falwells and Granda.
With the newly exhumed information, Roston penned an explosive article for BuzzFeed, which revealed Jerry’s “friendly relationship” with the former pool boy. The story went viral.
Granda, who had enrolled in a graduate program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and was looking for jobs, instantly became the butt of jokes and crude speculation online. Owing to the article, any prospects of employment and dating opportunities were voided.
“I felt like there was no way out,” a teary Granda says in the film. “It’s all over for me.”
Corben tells The Post that Granda “hit rock bottom” in 2020, and had mapped out a suicide plot.
“He told me that he had a forest that he liked to go jogging in and he had a favorite tree,” said Corben, “that’s where he was going to hang himself.”
But rather than self-harm, Granda remembered Trump’s advice to “get even.”
So, he agreed to tell his story to Roston, who was working at Reuters at the time, and expose the Falwells for their alleged sex-crazed abuse of money and power.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Jerry denied Granda’s claims that he was party to his and Becki’s sex, and blamed his wife for having an affair.
But, according to Corben, Granda’s evidence to the contrary is damning.
In the doc, Granda provides secretly recorded footage from a FaceTime call with an unsuspecting Becki. During the video call she strips naked on camera and gives him a virtual tour of the various places they had sex in her home, including her children’s bedrooms. Jerry makes a cameo appearance in the recording.
In August 2020, Jerry resigned as president of Liberty University, but not before negotiating a $10.5 million payout from the school. However in April 2021, the institution sued him for over $40 million, accusing him of being dishonest with the university’s executive committee when negotiating his severance package. (Jerry denied these claims, calling them “yet another attempt to defame me and discredit my record,” in a statement to NPR in 2021.) Jerry has also been banned from the campus, which is where both of his late parents are buried.
Following the fray, a fallen-from-grace Jerry texted Granda: “I hope you drop the soap in prison,” according to the doc.
And, in July 2022, upon learning of Corben’s forthcoming documentary on social media, Becki authored a series of scathing Instagram comments, disparaging Granda.
“So what has the pool boy done since working as a pool boy? A two-year graduate degree and then what!,” she wrote in part. “Pool boy for book rights and pool boy for documentary?!? Just cashing in on whatever he can do besides getting an honest job.”
But Corben insists that his doc isn’t a gaudy payday for Granda, but rather a message warning folks not to fall prey to powerful predators.
“There’s no intent to kink shame the Falwells, they seem like a lot of fun,” said Corben. “The problem here is their holier than thou hypocrisy. It’s dangerous.“