Ted Haggard Speaks Out After Two-Year Silence

Former pastor apologizes to gay community, regrets "abusive" relationship.

ByABC News
January 27, 2009, 2:44 PM

Jan. 29, 2009— -- Ted Haggard was one of the most powerful evangelical preachers in the country. He was close to the Bush White House and cozy with the reporters who covered his meteoric rise from pastor of the 12,000-member New Life Church to head of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals.

But in 2006, he fell from grace when male prostitute Mike Jones accused of him of paying for sex and using crystal meth.

The scandal shocked the evangelical community, which had become accustomed to Haggard's sermons warning of the sins of homosexuality. Another of his frequent themes: "Don't have secrets in your life."

Now, after a two-year media blackout, Haggard, 52, is putting himself back in the spotlight.

"I needed to say, 'I'm sorry,'" Haggard told "Good Morning America" today when describing why he'd opted to speak out.

"I want to take responsibility. I want to tell the truth," he said as his wife, Gayle Haggard, sat beside him.

The scandal rocked his marriage, but Gayle Haggard said she's forgiven her husband and regained some element of trust.

"I do trust that he loves me and I trust that he's working to be honest with me on every level," she said on "GMA." "For that I am very thankful."

She attributed their rebuilt relationship to the fact that "the teachings of Jesus are to forgive, to love and not to judge."

During an interview with ABC News, Haggard said it was fair to describe him as a hypocrite and a liar.

"The reason I would teach that is that was reflective of my struggle," he said.

After the scandal, Haggard became suicidal, "absolutely convinced that the world would be a better place without me."

"I'd never lied about anything except my struggle with sexuality. But that is a huge flash point," he said. "That's not like a struggle with stealing CDs from Kmart. And I'd just never experienced it before. I didn't know. I was naive. And so the pain I went through. I became convinced actually, I told my wife, Gayle, to divorce me."

Now, after two years of intensive psychotherapy, Haggard said he has finally figured out his own sexuality. He calls himself heterosexual, "with issues." He said he no longer struggles with his sexuality.

On occasion he still imagines being with men, but he says these thoughts are "not compelling."

"I don't fit into a neat little box," he said.

He says if he were gay, it would be a sin.

"With my belief system, I believe that I need to be faithful to my wife. I need to be honorable to her. And I can be now. It's not a struggle at all now," he said. "I love my intimate relationship with my wife. I'm not gay."

Although he doesn't wish to categorize himself as gay, Haggard acknowledged that his religion forced him to suppress a fundamental part of who he is.

"There were a lot of reasons for religious reasons and culture reasons from the world in which I was operating, I displaced a lot of the responsibility for my own actions," Haggard told "GMA."

"People can judge me," he said. "I think it's fair that they judge me and that they think that I'm not being real with myself."