Who is Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz's former mistress?

Celebrity pastor Carl Lentz known for his association with Justin Bieber was ousted from the Hillsong Church after the board members and founder of the megachurch found out about his "moral failures," which involved him having a mistress and sharing an intimate relationship with his family's nanny.

News of Lentz's infidelities first surfaced in 2020 when the Hillsong leadership was notified about the discovery of "incriminating text messages" between the pastor and a woman named Ranin Karim, a jewelry designer. Reports state that Karim later appeared in an interview, weeks after he was fired from the church, and revealed that she was the ex-Hillsong pastor's mistress for five months.

According to People, an upcoming FX documentary titled The Secrets of Hillsong will drop two episodes this Friday, May 19, chronicling the scandals around Carl Lentz. The series premieres on the channel at 10:00 pm ET and is expected to comprise exclusive interviews with Lentz and his wife Laura as she not only discusses the mistress but also how she found out about his affair with their nanny.

Episode 1 is titled Church in the Wild. The synopsis says:

"In 2015, a young pastor named Carl Lentz lands in New York City to spread the Word of Hillsong, an Australian megachurch; after allegations explode, Lentz is fired from his role and disappears; now he breaks his silence after more than two years."

Further, the synopsis for episode 2, titled The Prodigal Son, states:

"In their first interviews since their expulsion, Carl and Laura Lentz shed light onto the inner sanctum of Hillsong, detailing the burden of building the church's congregation and the response from leadership when it deemed Carl a liability."

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Disgraced Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz's mistress Ranin Karim admits that their five-month affair was "toxic"

In late 2020, married celebrity pastor Carl Lentz was fired from the star-studded megachurch Hillsong after news of his infidelities, initially referred to as “a recent revelation of moral failures,” first surfaced. It was subsequently announced that the 42-year-old father-of-three had cheated on his wife of 17 years, the mother of his children, fellow minister, Laura Lentz.

Within a few weeks, his former mistress Ranin Karim spoke about their steamy, five-month romance and the hypocrisy of a man who she said was unable to practice what he preached. The NYC-based fashion and jewelry designer Karim revealed she met Lentz in May, at Williamsburg’s Domino Park while out with her dog. They then exchanged phone numbers and left the park together.

Ever since Lentz was fired from the Hillsong Church in 2020, Karim has made multiple on-screen appearances and spoken about her affair with the one-time celebrity pastor and on Discovery+'s docuseries Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed shared some serious details, calling it "the most toxic thing I've ever had to deal with." She further wished to have never met the man.

According to Daily Mail, in November 2020, Ranin Karim told Vanity Fair that her affair with the married pastor Carl Lentz lasted for five months earlier that year and that she "told him [I loved him] many times because it was just, just like, what’s the point?"

The designer disclosed that Lentz told her about his marriage not long after they first met, but they continued to see each other. She claimed to have given him multiple opportunities to call it off, stating that "I wanted to do the right thing and walk, walk away. I am not a monster."

Karim further recalled that on October 26 of that year, Lentz told her that his wife had found out about their affair and said that his life was "over," and that he had resigned from the Hillsong Church. But a few days later, the megachurch released an official statement, announcing that the pastor was fired by their founder Brian Houston, who accused him of "moral failures" and "breaches of trust."

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FX's The Secrets of Hillsong will further delve into Carl Lentz's affair and his former mistress.