Ever since Adrienne Bailon went public with her new boo, gospel singer Israel Houghton, everyone has been bringing up his past tea. Much of it consists Houghton and his wife announcing their divorce in February, following a Facebook post where Houghton admitted to cheating 5 years prior.
Now due to his cheating, and probably all of the added attention he’s getting, Israel Houghton has been fired from Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church.
44 year old Houghton had been working as a minister at Lakewood since 2011. After noticing he had been wiped from the church’s website, a rep for Lakewood tells Radar Online that Houghton had been excused from his duties amid cheating rumors in February. A rep for Houghton, on the other hand, says that he remains on staff and has just taken “a personal sabbatical of his choosing.”
“Israel has been on staff at Lakewood for 15 years, since 2001, and actually remains officially on staff. He was never suspended, nor was he put on an indefinite leave, but is on a personal sabbatical of his choosing,” the rep said.
Back in February Israel Houghton announced via Facebook that he and his wife of 20 years, Meleasa, were getting divorced after he “failed and sinned” several years prior and they weren’t able to get over it. Over the weekend, photos of he and Adrienne Bailon vacationing in Mexico turned up online, leading many to believe that Adrienne could have been the cause of Houghton’s infidelity. The gospel singer quickly shut those rumors down, saying that he met Bailon on the set of the movie I’m In Love with a Church Girl, long after his marital problems began. He even congratulated Bailon on her engagement to Roc Nation’s Lenny S, which ultimately ended up failing too. He says that only now that they are both single, have they tried for a relationship.
