Carl Lentz’s Mistress: Did He Cheat With Popular NYC Podcaster Kayce Smith?
BIG OL' YIKES.
Celeb pastor Carl Lentz made headlines this week after he was abruptly fired from Hillsong Church for “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.”
However, shortly after news of Lentz’s firing broke, the disgraced pastor revealed in a social media statement that he had cheated on his wife of 17 years, Laura Lentz.
“I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that. This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions,” he said on Instagram.
“I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need.”
Who is Carl Lentz’s alleged mistress, Kayce Smith?
Read on for theories about who Carl Lentz cheated on his wife with.
Did Carl Lentz have an affair with Kayce Smith?
Reddit users wasted no time running to the social media site to speculate about Carl Lentz’s mistress.
One of the names that is being thrown around is Barstool Sports podcaster and multi-media personality, Kayce Smith, who has long been rumored to be obsessed with Lentz.
In an unconfirmed rumor posted to the Instagram account Deux Moi, which is private, the account alleged that the woman Lentz has been “hooking up with” is a popular New York-based podcaster who’s written stories about Lentz, and Carl Lentz had actually visited her workplace in recent years.
You can see the blind item that was sent to the account below.
It's important to note the Twitter user may be referring to Alex Cooper, who is the current host of Call Her Daddy, but we'll address that later on.
“It's gotta be Kayce, right? Isn't she a member of his church?” one Reddit user quipped, to which another responded, “She liked his post about it which seems odd to me. Also if you are trying to fix thing [sic] in your marriage I would think you would unfollow her which he hasn’t.”
The above statement was posted nearly 17 hours ago at the time of this posting and when we checked, it looks like Kayce Smith is no longer following Carl Lentz on Instagram; however, he is still following her.
It’s also worth noting that Kayce — a prominent media figure in the sports world who has almost 400K followers on Instagram — immediately made her Instagram profile private once rumors that she and Carl had an affair started hitting the web.
Furthermore, in a blog post Kayce wrote for Barstool Sports back in May about the Black Lives Matter movement, she specifically wrote about her relationship with “her pastor and friend” Carl Lentz and his support for BLM.
“I know I catch a lot of s*** about my connection to Hillsong and relationship with my pastor and friend Carl Lentz. While it means everything to me, I don't expect people to always understand it,” she wrote.
“And I'm not trying to ‘preach’ or ‘convert’ with this blog. Not at all. Just like politics, relationship/faith is something we don't really do here at Barstool often,” she added.
Carl Lentz has also worked with Barstool Sports before, appearing on a podcast episode in 2017.
Smith’s Twitter profile is still set to public, and she hasn’t made any statement as of yet regarding the rumors.
In addition to all of that, when scrolling through Kayce’s Twitter likes, she liked a tweet that read, “I blocked your number but I still wish you’d call” on Nov. 5, which could allude to her alleged involvement with Carl Lentz and the fact she stopped following him on Instagram, and possibly even cut off all contact with him.
One day before that, she liked a tweet that read, “Should probably stop using giant coffees as meal replacements but anxiety does that,” to which she replied, “I feel this on a spiritual level,” which could also be alluding to her rumored affair with her pastor.
So, when you put it all together — popular New York-based podcaster who’s written about Carl before, the fact that she went private on Instagram, her recent liked tweets, and the fact that she's a member of Hillsong Church — it makes sense that Kayce Smith could be Carl Lentz’s mistress.
Or was Carl Lentz sleeping with Alex Cooper?
Alex Cooper, another popular podcaster affiliated with Barstool Sports and the host of the podcast Call Her Daddy, is another name that’s being tossed into the infidelity ring.
However, some fans aren’t so certain that Alex could be the one Carl Lentz had an affair with.
“Def not Alex. The guy is a complete weirdo and Kayce is obsessed with him,” one Reddit User wrote.
It’s also worth noting that Carl Lentz and Alex Cooper do not follow each other on Instagram, and Cooper’s Instagram is still public.
Olivia Jakiel is an editor and writer who covers celebrity and entertainment news. Follow her on Instagram and keep up with her zingers on Twitter.