Divorce Proceedings

A North Car­oli­na megachurch pas­tor, known as “Pas­tor Andy” to his con­gre­gants, has been ordered to pay a stag­ger­ing $12,000 month­ly alimo­ny to his ex-wife after their 33-year mar­riage came to an end.

The divorce set­tle­ment pro­vides a glimpse into the pas­tor’s sub­stan­tial wealth and assets.

Gilbert Andre Thomp­son Jr., the leader of the World Over­com­ers Chris­t­ian Church, filed for divorce on June 10, 2024, end­ing his union with 57-year-old Dequi­l­la LaShawn. The cou­ple had been sep­a­rat­ed for more than a year before the filing.

Wealth and Assets

The divorce agree­ment revealed the extent of Thomp­son’s wealth, despite it large­ly remain­ing unknown pre­vi­ous­ly. He was ordered to pay a total of $1.3 mil­lion in alimo­ny, break­ing down to the $12,000 month­ly pay­ments over the next nine years.

For per­spec­tive, fig­ures like Alex Rodriguez and Kanye West, each with a net worth around $400 mil­lion, typ­i­cal­ly pay over $100,000 per month in child sup­port. Thomp­son’s alimo­ny pay­ments sug­gest his net worth is like­ly in the millions.

In addi­tion to the alimo­ny, Thomp­son was award­ed the fam­i­ly’s $2.8 mil­lion man­sion in Mebane, North Car­oli­na, along with two oth­er prop­er­ties val­ued at $444,000 and $154,000. He will also retain own­er­ship of his four adult chil­dren’s cars, which he had pur­chased for them.

Separation and Divorce

The rea­sons for the sud­den split between Thomp­son and LaShawn were cit­ed as “unfor­tu­nate dif­fer­ences and incom­pat­i­bil­i­ties” that had arisen between the cou­ple. The pair had been mar­ried since June 1991.

In the years lead­ing up to the divorce, LaShawn had hint­ed at chal­lenges in their rela­tion­ship, but pro­fessed her con­tin­ued love and sup­port for her husband. 

How­ev­er, the cou­ple’s sep­a­ra­tion and the even­tu­al divorce pro­ceed­ings revealed the break­down of their long-stand­ing marriage.