Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. was spotted on a yacht getaway, drink in hand, in a photo with his arm around a young woman and his zipper down, exposing his belly – his wife nowhere in sight.
In the photo, which went viral, Falwell’s shirt is hiked up, his pants are unzipped and his underwear is visible revealing a bare flabby stomach.
While the young woman’s zipper on her shorts is also undone, her cutoffs reveal the upper crest of her thighs. Her lower abdomen is also exposed.
The photo of Falwell, who is one of President Donald Trump‘s most staunch supporters, has drawn criticism, with some saying that Falwell is perverting the values and views that his college promotes. His Liberty University, which is a dry-campus with a strict dress code, has an even more stringent system for keeping students in line with the Evangelical organization’s views and values – even prohibiting fraternizing with the opposite gender past sunset.
Falwell has been vacationing on a costly yacht trip and has been documenting his exploits, captioning the photo and alluding to the woman in the picture, “Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht.”
“How is this Jerry Falwell Jr. photo even real? Also, if you’re running the largest Christian university in America, maybe don’t put photos of yourself on social media with your pants undone on a yacht – with random women in bad wigs. So gross, so hypocritical,” The View co-host Meghan McCain tweeted.
S.E. Cupp, the conservative CNN host, wrote, “There were already so many good reasons not to entrust your kids to Jerry Falwell Jr’s learning institution. The unzipped pants yacht photo – of the school’s PRESIDENT – is sadly the least of them.”
After Falwell posted the bizarre photo on Instagram, he deleted it almost immediately. The post, however, was captured by Houston Chronicle reporter Robert Downen, who shared it on Twitter, before Falwell deleted it.
In the original Instagram by Falwell, the caption stated that the drink that he was holding was just “black water” and a “prop only.” The Liberty University president also added that the scantily clad woman was merely a “good friend.”
On Wednesday, Falwell apologized on a local radio program, saying “I’m trying to be a good boy.”
