TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Randy and Paula White, co-pastors of a fast-growing megachurch that has come under financial scrutiny in recent months, have told their congregation they plan to divorce.
The Whites, who've been married nearly 18 years and lead the 23,000-member Without Walls International Church, described the split as amicable and blamed two lives going in different directions.
Of the two, Paula White's profile is much larger. While Randy White, 48, said he would remain at the church as senior pastor, Paula White, 41, said she would concentrate on her ministry. Her work includes a TV show broadcast on Black Entertainment Television and other national networks, conferences, and book and video sales.
The Tampa Tribune has published a series of reports about the Whites' financial dealings. Those included the couple's failure to repay a $170,000 loan from an elderly widow, money borrowed in 1995 as a down payment on a house. The couple sold the house in 2006, but still had not repaid the loan to Ruth McGinnis by May.
McGinnis said recently that "everything's been settled financially between Pastor Randy and me."
The Whites founded Without Walls in 1991 as the South Tampa Christian Center. Since then, the church has become one of the nation's biggest and fastest-growing churches, boasting nearly $40 million in revenues last year.