I used to think that it was only Muslim Sheiks that did the arranged marriage thing, so imagine my surprise to find out so did Billy Graham.
His daughter, Virginia, only 17 at the time, when Billy arranged her to meet and then marry a man 20 years her senior, Stephen Tchividjian. He was the son of a wealthy donor to the Graham Organization.
Well, the marriage didn't last, and they divorced. She then remarried, and Virginia "Gigi" Graham Tchividjian became Gigi Foreman, As a side note, on July 1st, 2005 she was arrested and charged with domestic abuse after witnesses told police she choked her new second husband in a parking lot. She was charged with misdemeanor domestic abuse and released the following day.
I read Gigi's autobiographical book and the marriage was not arranged by her parents. It was something she and her future husband arranged in letters during a long-distance friendship. The Grahams were surprised by Gigi's news and decision but, in the end, they gave their blessing as Gigi and her soon-to-be husband were so insistent that they felt led to be married.
ReplyDeleteGigi was born in 1945 and Stephen Tchividjian in 1939. How could he be 20 years her senior. Frank Schaeffer's book is filled with so many self-serving distortions that waht it says cannot be taken at face value.
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