GOD TV co-founder Wendy Alec has made an emotional live broadcast today in which she disclosed that her husband and ministry partner of over 20 years, Rory Alec, has left her for another woman.
Her comments on Oct. 8 were made after the TV channel confirmed last week that Rory would be stepping aside as chairman and chief executive with immediate effect following an undisclosed "moral failure".
Rory said in a statement on October 2: "After 20 years of service, I have had a moral failure this year. For this reason, I am stepping down. Please forgive me for the disappointment I've caused, but I know your eyes are on Jesus who is the author and finisher of your faith and not on me, an imperfect man.
"It is with a heavy heart that I confirm my season with GOD TV is over for now."
In a lengthy statement broadcast live on GOD TV today, Wendy said Rory had been having an affair with a divorced woman in Austria and that he is currently staying on the farm belonging to the woman's father in South Africa.
Wendy also stated that he no longer wishes to be involved in the GOD TV ministry, which they founded together in 1995.
She was frequently tearful as she explained Rory's decision, which she described as a "satanic assault on God TV and Rory and I".
Wendy said problems first appeared in March this year when Rory returned home from a visit to South Africa and announced his intention to go to Germany for some "space".
"My whole world started turning upside down and the next morning he just went," Wendy said.
"It started to be extremely traumatic for me because suddenly my husband just started to change in a pattern and a way I had never seen him act before."
She shared the situation with trusted friends and they initially kept it quiet because they were believing God for a breakthrough, but "it got worse", she says, and Rory "just started to go off".
She alleges he told her to keep his behaviour quiet for the sake of the ministry and the staff, and that she started to feel "very manipulated and intimidated".
Wendy said she and the board of GOD TV asked Rory to go for counselling because they thought he might be suffering from burnout as a result of carrying the financial burden of the ministry for so many years, but she says he was not able to trust anyone enough to go for counselling and refused.
As the year went on, he "started going away for weeks at a time" but rather than making things better, it "seemed like every time he had more space it got worse and worse for our marriage", she alleged.
"To live like that for me was really, really hard."
She described one time when she had emergency hospital treatment for gall bladder on the Global Day of Prayer and while she was in hospital, Rory "just flew off to Austria".
Wendy said he only returned home when her brother, who is a doctor, told him how serious it was, but she says he left again just a few days after she came out of the hospital.
She also said that she had at one point asked him if there was another woman and that he had denied there was.
It was following a night of prayer with friends for the situation on August 15 she says she discovered he had been having an affair with a divorced woman in Austria that he had apparently come to know as a result of working with her on her jazz album in the studio.
"The devil got in very, very easily," said Wendy.
She said the unnamed woman supposedly heard a voice from God telling her that Rory was her Mr Right and her husband.
Wendy continued: "That landed up in adultery. The [GOD TV] board talked to him and it was just too far gone and Rory said 'I won't be controlled'. He went upstairs, packed his bags and he went to Austria."
Rory did then return and he and Wendy headed out to South Africa for what she anticipated would be a time of counselling but during the stay, he "turned around to me and said our marriage is over".
While Wendy says she wants her marriage to be restored, she told viewers Rory does not feel the same way.
"Today I have to tell you guys it's not like that," she insisted.
"Rory is on this lady's father's farm in South Africa. He doesn't want to be involved in the ministry anymore and as far as he's concerned, the marriage is finished. He doesn't want restoration, he doesn't want counselling, he doesn't want anything to do with it. He wants a new life."
Wendy said that in spite of the breakdown of her marriage, God has been faithful to her and "been healing my heart where it couldn't be healed".
"It is traumatic because it's like your life is over, all our memories," she said.
"I don't know what the outcome will be but I know this with all my heart ... I've got absolute trust in my Father God. He is beautiful and he is always good. I have absolute faith in incredible restoration and incredible restitution in our lives ahead."
The special broadcast, made live from Jerusalem, was joined by supporters of GOD TV, including Canon Andrew White, who said God had not finished with GOD TV and was still going to do wonderful things through the channel.
"God is going to cause revival to come and that's why the devil doesn't like it and he will try and stop it and destroy it, but the work of God has not finished. It has only just begun," he said.
Bill Johnson, senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, asked people to stand behind GOD TV and both Wendy and Rory.
"They're in a place of real need right now ... This is the worst time for us to pull away from these friends of ours," he said.
Rory could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
