Barack Obama’s former pastor has been cavorting with another man’s wife, whom he romanced while she worked at a church in Dallas run by one of his disciples, according to a report in the New York Post.
Elizabeth Payne, 37, told the Post that she and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, 67, had a sexual relationship this year and that she was fired from her job when the affair was made public. Payne had been working at Friendship-West Baptist Church as a secretary to the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, a longtime Wright protege.
“I was involved with Rev. Wright, and that’s why I lost my job and why my husband divorced me,” Payne was quoted saying in Tuesday’s newspaper. She said she has filed a wrongful-dismissal claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
According to Payne’s estranged husband, Fred Payne, 64, Wright e-mailed Elizabeth Payne and told her he was going to leave his wife, Ramah, for her.
Wright married Ramah more than 20 years ago after he unsuccessfully provided marriage counseling for her and her former husband.
Fred Payne said members of the church, including Haynes, would not be pleased about the interracial aspect of the relationship.
“People wouldn’t be happy to know that my wife was sleeping with a black man,” he said.
