Pres. D'Souza caught in marriage blunder

SPARTANBURG, S.C.— President Dinesh D’Souza told WORLD Magazine that a young woman he was seen with while in South Carolina for a conference was his fiancée, even though he has been married to his wife, Dixie, for 20 years. He introduced the woman, Denise Odie Joseph II, to at least three people as his fiancée, according to the report. Near 11 pm the night of a Christian conference Sept. 28, event organizer Tony Beam escorted the two to a Comfort Suites hotel for the night.

Beam said they checked in together and were apparently sharing a room in the hotel. The next day, another organizer, Alex McFarland, called D’Souza, who admitted he shared a room with his "fiancée" but said “nothing happened.”

D’Souza confirmed his engagement to Joseph without explaining how he could be engaged to one woman while married to Dixie. When asked, he said he had filed for divorce from his wife recently. On Oct. 15, D’Souza wrote in a text message to WORLD reporter Warren Cole Smith, “I have decided to suspend the engagement.”

San Diego County Superior Court records show that D’Souza filed for divorce Oct. 4. Under California law, D'Souza must wait six months before going through with the divorce. D’Souza on Oct. 4 told Smith his marriage was “over” and that he “is sure Denise is the one for me,” and said he had “done nothing wrong.”

When D'Souza moved from California to New York to become president of King's in 2010, his wife and daughter remained in California.

D’Souza said King’s board chairman and past president Andy Mills has been aware of his marital issues since 2010. The King’s College board held a conference call to begin “looking into the situation” and will further discuss Oct. 17-18. D’Souza was present during a part of the call, spokesman Mark DeMoss said.

King's vice president of Student Development Eric Bennett sent out the following statement regarding the situation: "The Board of Trustees of The King's College has, in recent days, learned that the details of the personal life of our president, Dinesh D'Souza, including information about admitted difficulties in his marriage, would be published in a national magazine. While our board had been aware of some of these details, we were not aware of others and immediately met in special session as a board, with Dinesh, to learn what we could about this situation."

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