Ted Haggard's Wife to Oprah: I Knew About Gay DesiresGayle Haggard thought her husband Ted could control his sexual urges, but she was wrong. And the ramifications would put her family in the national spotlight.
Gayle, the wife of former Colorado New Life Church Pastor Ted Haggard, will tell Oprah Winfrey today that she knew about her husband’s same-sex struggles for years and had hoped he had a handle on things. But then, in 2006, their world came crashing down when a male prostitute came forward about a relationship with Haggard. "The first words out of my mouth were, ‘Who are you?’" she said, according to a publicity release issued Tuesday by Harpo Productions.
Adding to the Haggards’ lack of marital bliss is the news this week that Haggard also masturbated in front of a then-22-year-old church volunteer in 2005. The volunteer, Grant Haas, told KRDO in Colorado Springs that Haggard also sent him illicit text messages including "all kind of weird things, texting me about all the different sexual positions, practices he was engaging in and it was just really weird." The church and the man reached a settlement in 2007. Haas says he spoke out now to protest a new HBO documentary on Haggard. Haas says that film, directed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, seems to paint Haggard as a victim, a label Haas simply couldn’t accept.
Why, you may wonder, would Haggard agree to such a project? "He talked to us because he had nothing to lose," Pelosi said. "He was down and out." But apparently Haggard isn’t too thrilled about the movie. He told the LA Times that he trusted his friend, Pelosi, not to invade his family’s privacy and he wasn’t comfortable with her using videotaped footage for the film. But Pelosi said she wanted to tell his side of the story, since the media did "a disservice" to him.
The documentary, "The Trials of Ted Haggard," premiers Thursday at 8 PM ET.
Books that we recommend;
by Dennis Schleicher
Forbidden Love with a Married Man: E-mail Diaries
by Angelo Pezzote
Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love
If he had not done so much damage to others with his preaching I would feel sorry for this man. A gay man stuck with all this fundamentalist baggage is a very sad thing. Some suffer alone with it, but some drag others along with them which is what Haggard has done to others like him, with his televangelism. It’s just like Senator Craig… you would feel sorry for a guy who is so messed up about his homosexuality that he marries a woman and tries to pick up men in airport men’s rooms… except that this man consistently voted against gay rights.
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