Televangelist Bynum signs divorce settlement

By AILEEN DODD

National evangelist Juanita Bynum has finally agreed to divorce her estranged husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks III.

Weeks’ attorney, Randy Kessler, said he received a signed, 14-page settlement agreement late Monday.

“When you get the settlement agreement signed it’s very hard to get out of it,” Kessler said. “It’s pretty much over now.”

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed but Weeks will ask that Bynum pay his attorney fees, Kessler said. The divorce must be finalized on the grounds that the marriage is “broken beyond repair” in Gwinnett County Superior Court. Weeks plans to go before a Gwinnett County judge this week to finalize the divorce.

Bynum and Weeks married in 2002 in an elaborate ceremony. They built Global Destiny Church in Duluth together before their relationship fizzled.

On Aug. 21, 2007, Weeks attacked Bynum in the parking lot of the Renaissance Concourse Hotel in Atlanta after the couple met to discuss their problems. They had been separated since spring 2007.

Weeks pleaded guilty in March to aggravated assault in the attack on his wife. He was sentenced as a first offender, given three years’ probation and ordered to attend anger management classes and perform 200 hours of community service.

Bynum proclaimed herself the new “face of domestic violence” after the assault. The traveling Pentecostal pastor continues her ministry. In April, Bynum appeared on Fox TV’s “Divorce Court,” offering advice to a couple who was ending their marriage after a history of domestic violence.