Toni Collier, the ex-wife of former Hillsong pastor Sam Collier, has shared more details about what led to their divorce in 2023, alleging that the marriage ultimately collapsed after her husband was blackmailed by a transgender prostitute he had been seeing.
In 2022, Sam Collier—who had previously been celebrated as the first Black lead pastor of Hillsong Atlanta before resigning to start his own ministry, Story Church—announced on Instagram (in a now-deleted post) that he was divorcing his wife. He claimed that she had abused him all throughout their marriage, and that the divorce was something he had attempted seven times before but had never followed through on until now.
Earlier that same day, however, Toni Collier had posted on her own Instagram that she was the one filing for divorce, citing “discovering and enduring repeated acts of infidelity” over the course of years. She wrote that despite seasons of hope, attempts at reconciliation, and counseling, after recently uncovering yet more infidelity, she realized the marriage was no longer sustainable or God-honoring. The couple have two children.
In an interview with Lecrae, Toni revealed that her husband had been unfaithful for the last six years of their eight-year marriage. Although she had worked hard to save the relationship despite his chronic infidelity, the final straw came in September 2023:
“I got a call from my ex-husband…I was filming a show with a great Christian network, bopping around, living my best and most glorious life, only to wake up at 6 a.m. and to have to watch my husband tell me that he was being extorted by somoene he hired for sexual favors, tens of thousands of dollars.
“And then I have to tell every single organization, every booking—because how do I honor the people that put their name on me? I had to tell them, ‘Hey, I’m choosing to leave my marriage. This is why. I can’t tell you everything because I don’t want to embarrass him or our family.’ And then I have to watch as churches, pastors, and organizations cancel me, and I didn’t do anything.”
Toni later shared that during the divorce proceedings she was asked to sign an NDA, but she refused. She also revealed on the Girls Gone Bible podcast that the extortionist was a transgender prostitute who had allegedly filmed one of their encounters and was threatening to expose Sam to his church unless he paid.
A police record of the attempted extorntion reads:
In late 2021, Hillsong Atlanta launched with Sam Collier as pastor. Collier has a wild theological past, including spending years as Youth Choir Director in a church where the Senior Pastor was the openly pro-choice, openly pro-LGBT, heresy-spewing, Planned-Parenthood-endorsed Democrat Senator, Dr. Raphael Warnock, and then several years at Bishop Eddie Long’s megachurch – a prosperity gospel heretic who preaches wretched blasphemies about name-it-and-claim-it, speaking realities into existence, little god theology, and multiple sex scandals.
Later he joined up with Andy Stanley for several years until he was tapped by Hillsong head honcho Brian Houston to lead the new plant, even though Collier has no seminary training and a horrific Christian pedigree.
Hillsong gave them $762,000.
Once the news that Brian Houston was ousted from Hillsong, Collier also announced that he was leaving Hillsong and starting his own church, which he did three weeks later. Like seemingly every other Hillonsg Church, they too had questions about financial impropriety. A report by Hillsong about the church reads:
“Although Hillsong Atlanta was intending to commence operations with only 5 staff members, $18.8k was allocated for the staff picnic/retreat. Yet, zero was allocated to CityCare Program Costs and zero for Bibles and Literature.
When Sam Collier decided to separate from Hillsong in early 2022 due to the Brian Houston scandal, the $762k USD Hillsong had invested into this fledgling campus was also lost. This included $82.5k in venue break costs.
Hillsong Atlanta’s Year One budget was approved with an operating deficit of $608,646. This included a salary of USD 145K for Senior Pastor Sam Collier (more than twice of the salary of the COO), Sunday Catering expenses of $60k, and executive meals, travel and accommodation totaling $43k.”
