#Jerry Falwell Jr. may get $10.5 million payout from Liberty University

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Jerry Falwell Jr.
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Jerry Falwell Jr. could be awaiting about $10.5 million from Liberty University following his resignation from the conservative Christian school amid a steamy sex scandal, a report said.

Falwell, 58, who boasted earlier Tuesday that he was “free at last,” is owed the massive payout as part of the stipulations in his employment contract, a source told The Wall Street Journal.

The evangelical powerhouse is due $2.5 million, constituting two years of his salary, plus a one-time payment of roughly $8 million as part of a contractual clause giving Falwell full pay if he resigned with restricted responsibilities, the source told the paper.

Liberty University’s board of trustees, who unanimously voted Tuesday to accept Falwell’s resignation, had also said in a statement the former president would receive his full severance package.

The board did not disclose the terms of the deal.

Falwell seconded that notion in an Monday night interview with The Wall Street Journal, telling the paper, “I didn’t break any rules—I get my compensation.”

He resigned amid fallout from a statement he released Sunday saying his wife cheated on him with a Miami pool boy around 2012 and that the couple had been the victims of repeated extortion attempts since.

Falwell said the affair was brief and he was not involved.

Then the former pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, claimed that not only had the affair lasted years, but Falwell knew about it — and even watched as the illicit pair had sex. Granda denied extorting anyone.

Falwell had already been on leave from his university position when the scandal broke — over a photo of him with his arm around a pregnant woman and his pants open. He has said it was just a joke.

Describing how felt after resigning to the News & Advance on Tuesday, Falwell quoted Martin Luther King Jr.

“It’s a relief,” Falwell said. “The quote that keeps going through my mind this morning is Martin Luther King Jr: ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last.’ ”