Some stories take years to find their voice. Leona Kimes carried hers for nearly a decade — through silence, shame, fear, and an unshakeable sense that nobody would believe her even if she spoke. She left Sydney, Australia, as a young woman full of faith, purpose, and genuine excitement about building something meaningful in New York City. What she found instead was a world of spiritual manipulation, abuse of power, and nanny exploitation hidden behind the gleaming facade of one of the world’s most celebrated evangelical megachurches.
Today, the name Leona Kimes means something powerful. It means courage. It means truth-telling at personal cost. It means a woman who refused to let her story be buried alongside the institution that tried to silence it. Her bombshell essay titled Writing My Voice Back — published on Medium on Memorial Day 2021, didn’t just expose Carl Lentz.
It cracked open the entire culture of Hillsong Church abuse and forced a global conversation about pastoral misconduct, megachurch accountability, and the particular vulnerability of people who give everything to faith communities that don’t always deserve that devotion. This article tells the full story of Leona Kimes’ biography — from her childhood in Sydney, Australia, to her studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, from her marriage to Josh Kimes to her years as the Leona Kimes nanny in the Carl Lentz household,
Who Is Leona Kimes?
Leona Kimes is an Australian-born pastor, advocate, and survivor who became globally known after publishing a bombshell essay on Medium in May 2021. In that essay, she accused former Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz of manipulation and control, abuse of power, and sexual abuse during the seven years she worked as a Leona Kimes nanny in his family home. Her courage in speaking out sparked a worldwide conversation about Hillsong Church abuse and pastoral misconduct inside one of the world’s most powerful evangelical megachurches.
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She isn’t just defined by that moment, though. Leona Kimes is a wife, a mother, a former Leona Kimes Hillsong Boston co-pastor, and a woman who rebuilt her life after enduring years of spiritual manipulation and workplace exploitation. She studied at Macquarie University Sydney, joined Hillsong Church as a young woman, moved to America with her husband Josh Kimes, and eventually rose to co-lead an entire church campus. Her story is one of extraordinary highs and devastating lows — and it deserves to be told fully and honestly.
Quick Bio info
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Leona Kimes |
| Nickname | Leona |
| Gender | Female |
| Date of birth | Approximately 1984 |
| Age in 2026 | 42 years old |
| Birthplace | Sydney, Australia |
| Hometown | Sydney, Australia |
| Current residence | New York City, USA (reported post-2022) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Ethnicity | White / Caucasian |
| Religion | Christianity — evangelical faith background |
| Education/qualification | Studied at Macquarie University, Sydney |
| Profession | Pastor, survivor advocate, public speaker, writer |
| Languages spoken | English |
| Hobbies & interests | Faith and ministry, writing, community advocacy, therapy and healing, public speaking |
| Marital status | Married |
| Spouse/partner | Josh Kimes — married in 2008 |
| Children | Two children — a son and a daughter (Lyla Kimes) |
Personal Information
Full Name
Leona Kimes is an Australian-born pastor, survivor advocate, and public speaker who became globally known for her abuse allegations against former Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz. She is also the wife of fellow pastor Josh Kimes and former co-pastor of the now-dissolved Hillsong Boston campus.
Nickname
Leona is the commonly used name for Leona Kimes. She is also widely referred to in media as the “Hillsong nanny”.
Gender
She is female.
Date of Birth
Leona Kimes’ date of birth is 42 years old as of 2026.
Age
Leona Kimes is 42 years old as of 2026.
Birthplace
She was born in Sydney, Australia — a city that shaped her faith, her identity, and her early connection to Hillsong Church from a very young age.
Hometown
Leona’s hometown is Sydney, Australia. She grew up there, studied at Macquarie University, and joined Hillsong Church before making the life-changing move to the United States in 2010.
Current Residence
She currently lives in New York City, United States. After resigning from Hillsong Boston in April 2022 Leona and her husband Josh Kimes relocated back to New York City where their American chapter first began in 2010.
Nationality
Leona Kimes holds Australian nationality. She has been a resident of the United States since 2010 when she and Josh Kimes moved to New York City to help launch Hillsong NYC.
Ethnicity
She is of White / Caucasian ethnicity consistent with her Australian heritage and background.
Religion
Leona Kimes is a committed Christian. She served as a pastor within the evangelical Hillsong Church for over a decade. Despite the pain she experienced within that institution her Christian faith remains central to her identity and her ongoing advocacy work.
Education / Qualification
She studied at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia — one of the country’s most respected academic institutions. After completing her studies she moved into full-time pastoral ministry through Hillsong Church building a career that spanned over two decades across two continents.
Profession
Leona is a pastor, survivor advocate, public speaker, and writer. She previously served as co-pastor of Hillsong Boston alongside her husband Josh Kimes from 2020 to 2022.
Languages Spoken
She primarily speaks English as her first and only publicly known language.
Hobbies & Interests
Her interests include faith and ministry, writing, community advocacy, public speaking, therapy and mental health awareness, and family life.
Marital Status
Leona Kimes is married. She and Josh Kimes have been together since their Hillsong Sydney days and married in 2008 — a partnership that has been tested deeply and has ultimately held through extraordinary public and private pressure.
Spouse / Partner
Her husband is Josh Kimes, a fellow Australian pastor who served at Hillsong Church for 22 years. Josh has been publicly and vocally supportive of Leona’s decision to come forward with her allegations against Carl Lentz. They married in 2008 in Sydney, Australia and have built their lives and ministry together ever since.
Children
Leona and Josh Kimes have two children together — a son and a daughter named Lyla Kimes. Leona has consistently kept her children out of the public spotlight protecting their privacy even while sharing her own deeply personal story with the world.
Physical Appearance
Height (Feet / Inches)
Leona Kimes is estimated to be approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall based on available public photos and her appearances in media coverage over the years.
Height (cm)
Her estimated height is around 165 centimeters which places her at an average height for an Australian woman of her generation.
Weight (kg)
Her weight is 60kg based on her slim and composed build visible across public appearances and media photos.
Weight (lbs)
Her estimated weight is approximately 132 pounds, consistent with her lean and slim physical appearance across all available public imagery.
Eye Color
Leona has dark brown eyes — warm and expressive — a feature that comes across clearly in her media appearances and photographs taken throughout her public life.
Hair Color
Her natural hair color is dark brown to black. She has been seen with both sleek straight styles and softer natural looks across various public appearances and media engagements over the years.
Body Type
She has a slim and lean body type. Her poised and composed physical presence is consistent across all media coverage and public speaking appearances reflecting a woman who carries herself with quiet confidence and natural grace.
Skin Tone
Leona has a light to medium fair complexion consistent with her White Caucasian Australian heritage and visible clearly across all her public photos and media appearances.
Leona Kimes Early Life and Childhood in Sydney, Australia
Not many people know where Leona Kimes came from before the headlines. She grew up in Sydney, Australia as a young woman with a deep love for church, community, and faith. From an early age, she was drawn to the energy and purpose that came with serving in a church environment. Sydney, Australia, in the 1980s and 1990s, was home to a rapidly growing evangelical movement, and Hillsong Church sat right at the center of it. For a young woman like Leona, growing up in that atmosphere meant faith wasn’t just a Sunday habit. It was a daily, lived identity.
Her family background has been kept largely private, which is consistent with how Leona Kimes has always approached personal boundaries. What is known is that she pursued higher education and studied at Macquarie University, Sydney, one of Australia’s most respected academic institutions. That decision speaks to a woman who valued both intellectual growth and spiritual development simultaneously. After completing her studies at Leona Kimes Macquarie University, she moved naturally into ministry work, connecting with Hillsong Church, which was already becoming a global force in contemporary Christianity.
From Sydney Church Girl to Global Ministry Figure
Growing up inside Hillsong Church’s Sydney culture shaped everything about how Leona Kimes understood ministry, leadership, and community. Hillsong Church was founded in the 1980s by Brian Houston and Bobbie Houston and quickly grew into a multimedia empire with campuses across the world. For young Australians who grew up in that world it wasn’t just a church. It was a career path, a social world, and a deeply embedded identity all at once.
Leona threw herself into that world completely. She served in various ministry capacities in Sydney Australia before her path crossed with Josh Kimes — a youth pastor who shared her passion for ministry and her vision for building something bigger. The moment they decided together to leave Australia and take Hillsong Church to New York City was the moment Leona Kimes biography took a dramatic and life-changing turn. That decision in 2010 set everything else in motion.
Leona Kimes Age, Birthday, and Personal Details 2026
If you’ve been searching for Leona Kimes age and background you’re not alone. She was referenced as 37 years old in media coverage from May 2021, which places her birth year at approximately 1984. That makes Leona Kimes age 2026 between 41 and 42 years old. Her exact birthday has never been publicly confirmed, which is consistent with her approach to personal privacy throughout her public life.
What matters far more than a birthdate is the lived experience she carries into every room she enters. By her early thirties, Leona Kimes had already served as a nanny for seven years, co-led a major church campus in Boston, Massachusetts, published one of the most talked-about personal essays of 2021, and resigned from a global institution. That is not a quiet life. That is a life lived at full intensity — shaped by faith, tested by betrayal, and ultimately defined by courage.
Physical Appearance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Height (feet/inches) | Approximately 5 feet 5 inches |
| Height (cm) | Approximately 165 cm |
| Weight (kg) | 60kg |
| Weight (lbs) | 132 lbs |
| Eye color | Brown — visible in public photos and media appearances |
| Hair color | Dark brown to black — consistent across public appearances |
| Body type | Slim and lean build — consistent across available public photos |
| Skin tone | Light to medium — fair complexion |
Leona Kimes Husband Josh Kimes — Love Story and Marriage
Every great story has a partnership at its core. For Leona Kimes that partnership is Josh Kimes Hillsong — her husband, fellow pastor, and the man who stood beside her when she finally chose to speak her truth publicly. Josh Kimes grew up deeply connected to Hillsong Church in Sydney Australia. He served as a youth pastor at Hillsong Sydney for five years before transitioning into broader ministry roles. His passion for church leadership matched Leona’s own and their shared values created a foundation that would eventually be tested more severely than either of them could have imagined.
Leona Kimes husband Josh and Leona married in 2008 — a union built on shared faith, shared ambition, and a shared belief that they could help build something meaningful together. Just two years after their wedding in 2010 the couple made the enormous decision to leave Sydney Australia and move to New York City to help launch Hillsong NYC. That move defined the next decade of their lives. Josh Kimes served as an associate pastor at Hillsong NYC while Leona took on the role of nanny for lead pastor Carl Lentz and his family. They were all in — completely and without reservation.
Josh Kimes — Who Is He Beyond Hillsong?
Josh Kimes is more than just Leona Kimes husband. He is a man who gave 22 years of his life to Hillsong Church — meeting his wife within that community, raising his children inside it, building his career through it, and ultimately walking away from it. His Josh Kimes resignation statement in April 2022 was raw and honest. He wrote that Hillsong Church would always hold a special place in his heart despite the immense pain they had endured. He apologized for his part in perpetuating a culture that at times valued building the church at the expense of those building it.
His admission regarding a racist text sent by Josh Kimes to colleagues at Hillsong Boston added another layer of complexity to his public story. He acknowledged it directly and said he had apologized personally to each recipient. That kind of public accountability — however imperfect — set him apart from many church leaders who chose silence or denial when confronted with their failures. Through all of it Josh Kimes remained publicly and vocally supportive of Leona Kimes and her decision to speak out. That support mattered enormously in a church world that often silences survivors.
Leona Kimes Children — Family Life and Kids
Leona Kimes family life has always been something she protects fiercely. She and Josh Kimes have two children together — a son and a daughter. Their daughter Lyla Kimes was referenced publicly in a 2020 report by Business Insider when a former volunteer named Tiffany Perez described being asked to babysit Lyla Kimes for approximately 25 hours per week in exchange for just $150 — roughly $6 per hour which was less than half the minimum wage in Boston Massachusetts at the time. Tiffany Perez also reported cleaning the Kimes household and walking their dog without additional compensation.
That report introduced an uncomfortable irony into Leona Kimes biography. A woman who had herself experienced nanny exploitation at the hands of Carl Lentz was now being accused of exploiting her own childcare worker. Leona Kimes and Josh Kimes responded to those allegations at the time by outlining steps their Hillsong Boston team had taken to improve equity and inclusion. Whether those steps were sufficient remains a matter of debate among those who followed the story closely.
Leona Kimes and Hillsong Church — How It All Began
To understand Leona Kimes you first need to understand Hillsong Church. Founded in Sydney Australia in the 1980s by Brian Houston and Bobbie Houston, Hillsong Church grew from a small suburban congregation into a global multimedia empire with over 130 locations worldwide. Its contemporary worship music became internationally recognized. Its pastors became celebrities. Its services attracted Hollywood stars, professional athletes, and cultural influencers. Justin Bieber was famously baptized by Carl Lentz in NBA player Tyson Chandler’s bathtub — a moment that encapsulated exactly how far removed Hillsong NYC had drifted from traditional church culture.
Leona Kimes Hillsong involvement began in Sydney Australia long before any of the American chapter unfolded. She was part of the church community that Brian Houston and Bobbie Houston built from the ground up. When the opportunity came to join the team heading to New York City to launch Hillsong NYC alongside Carl Lentz and Joel Houston, Leona Kimes and Josh Kimes said yes without hesitation. They believed in the mission completely. That belief — sincere, total, and ultimately costly — is what makes the story of what followed so devastating.
Leona Kimes as Nanny for Carl Lentz — The Untold Story
When Leona Kimes arrived in New York City in 2010 her official role within Hillsong NYC wasn’t on the stage or behind the pulpit. She became the Leona Kimes nanny for Carl Lentz and his wife Laura Lentz — caring for their four children and managing the daily operations of their household. On the surface it seemed like a natural arrangement. The Kimes were trusted members of the Hillsong Church family. Carl Lentz was the rising star of American evangelical Christianity. Placing a trusted colleague in that intimate domestic role seemed logical within the insular world of Hillsong NYC.
What nobody outside that household understood was the reality of what that role actually demanded. Leona Kimes didn’t work a standard nanny schedule. She described working up to 19 hours a day in the Lentz home — running errands, keeping the house clean, managing the children’s schedules, and making herself available at all hours regardless of her own personal needs or her family’s. Her schedule was changed without notice and without any attempt to confirm her availability. She described being called in from 7am to 11pm on regular occasions. That isn’t childcare. That is workplace exploitation operating behind the closed doors of a celebrated pastor’s home.
The power imbalance inside that household was staggering. Carl Lentz was not just Leona’s employer in a conventional sense. He was her spiritual leader, her husband’s boss, and the man whose approval determined the entire trajectory of the Kimes family’s life in America. Saying no to Carl Lentz didn’t just risk losing a job. It risked losing everything — their ministry, their community, their immigration status, and their sense of belonging in a world they had sacrificed everything to be part of. That context is essential for understanding why Leona Kimes stayed as long as she did and why speaking out felt impossible for so many years.
Leona Kimes Carl Lentz Allegations — What Really Happened
The Leona Kimes sexual abuse allegations against Carl Lentz are among the most detailed and disturbing accounts to emerge from the broader Hillsong megachurch controversy. According to Leona Kimes the abuse didn’t begin with physical violation. It began with words. Around 2014 Carl Lentz began making comments of a sexual nature that made her deeply uncomfortable. He told her after she had children he would “buy her a boob job.” He commented on her appearance in ways that crossed clear professional and personal boundaries. These early incidents established a pattern of pastoral misconduct that would escalate significantly over the following years.
By 2015 the situation had moved beyond words. Leona Kimes described Carl Lentz beginning to ask her for foot rubs and massages — requests that came from a position of absolute authority and were impossible to refuse without consequence. From there the Carl Lentz nanny allegations escalated to repeated sexual touching of intimate areas of her body without her consent. She was clear in her account that they never kissed and never had intercourse. But she was equally clear that what happened constituted serious sexual abuse. Her words — published in her Leona Kimes Medium essay — remain among the most powerful and precise descriptions of nanny abuse and spiritual manipulation ever written about the American megachurch world.
The Internal Hillsong Investigation — What the Report Revealed
The Zukerman Gore Brandeis and Crossman LLP investigation report was leaked to The Christian Post in April 2022 — just days before Josh Kimes resignation from Hillsong Boston. The timing was not coincidental. The report’s findings regarding Carl Lentz painted a picture of a pastor who had systematically abused his position of spiritual authority while Hillsong Church leadership either failed to notice or failed to act decisively. Brian Houston had privately described Carl Lentz as a narcissist following his firing — a characterization that raised serious questions about how much Hillsong Church leadership actually knew about Carl Lentz moral failures before they became public.
Leona Kimes Medium Essay — Writing My Voice Back
On May 31 2021 — Memorial Day — Leona Kimes published what would become one of the most significant personal essays of the year. The Leona Kimes Writing My Voice Back essay appeared on Medium under her own name and without the protective anonymity that many survivors choose when coming forward. She named herself fully. She described her experience in precise and unflinching detail. She wrote about manipulation and control, about abuse of power, about sexual abuse, about shame, about silence, and about the long road through therapy and healing that eventually gave her the strength to share her story with the world.
The Writing My Voice Back essay spread rapidly across social media and was picked up immediately by major outlets including Religion News Service, NBC News, and New York Post. The response was overwhelming. Survivors of church abuse culture across America and internationally wrote to share their own experiences of spiritual manipulation and pastoral misconduct. The essay became a touchstone in a growing national conversation about religious institution accountability and the particular vulnerability of people who serve inside closed evangelical megachurch communities where loyalty to leadership is treated as synonymous with faithfulness to God.
Leona Kimes and Hillsong Boston — Rise to Co-Pastor
After seven years as the Leona Kimes nanny for the Carl Lentz family Leona Kimes finally left that role in 2017. What followed was a remarkable professional pivot. Rather than retreating from Hillsong Church entirely she and Josh Kimes were appointed co-pastors of a brand new church campus — Hillsong Boston. In early 2020 they relocated to Boston, Massachusetts and began the enormous task of building a new congregation from scratch. The timing was extraordinarily challenging — just months after taking the helm of Hillsong Boston the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person gatherings globally. Yet the Kimes pressed forward.
As Leona Kimes Hillsong Boston co-pastor she stepped into a visible leadership role that represented a significant evolution from her years of behind-the-scenes service. She was now on the platform. She was now the pastor. She was now the public face of a Hillsong Church campus in one of America’s most intellectually rigorous cities.
Why Did Leona Kimes Resign from Hillsong Boston?
On April 18 2022 Josh Kimes posted to Instagram announcing that he and Leona Kimes had made the difficult decision to resign from Hillsong Boston. The Leona Kimes resignation came at a moment of maximum institutional turbulence within Hillsong Church globally. Just two weeks earlier Brian Houston — the founder and global senior pastor of Hillsong Church — had himself resigned amid allegations of his own sexual misconduct. Multiple Hillsong Church campuses across America were closing or restructuring..
Josh Kimes did not give a specific reason for his resignation in his public statement. He wrote that it had never been their plan to leave Hillsong Church — an institution he had given 22 years of his life to. He acknowledged the immense pain they had endured. He apologized for perpetuating a toxic workplace culture that prioritized the institution over the people building it. Those words were carefully chosen and deeply significant. They represented a form of accountability that many other departing Hillsong Church leaders had conspicuously avoided.
Frequently Asked Questions About Leona Kimes
Who is Leona Kimes?
Leona Kimes is an Australian-born pastor and survivor advocate from Sydney. She studied at Macquarie University before joining Hillsong Church, where she married Josh Kimes in 2008. She spent seven years as a nanny for the family of Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz, then became co-pastor of Hillsong Boston.
How old is Leona Kimes in 2026?
Leona Kimes is approximately 42 years old as of 2026.
Who is Leona Kimes married to?
Leona Kimes husband is Josh Kimes — a fellow Australian pastor who also served at Hillsong Church for 22 years. They married in 2008 and have two children together including daughter Lyla Kimes. Josh Kimes publicly supported Leona Kimes when she came forward with her allegations against Carl Lentz.
What did Leona Kimes accuse Carl Lentz of?
In her May 2021 Medium essay titled Writing My Voice Back, Leona accused Carl Lentz of manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power, and repeated sexual touching without her consent. She described freezing during each incident and said the abuse began with unwanted comments and escalated over time. Lentz denied all allegations and his legal team called them categorically false.
Was Leona Kimes in a relationship with Carl Lentz?
Leona has consistently described what happened as non-consensual abuse, not a relationship. Carl Lentz described it differently in the FX/Hulu documentary The Secrets of Hillsong, calling it a mutual situation while admitting he failed the power dynamic as her employer and pastor. Leona’s position is that she was a victim of workplace sexual abuse by her boss and spiritual authority.
Why did Leona Kimes leave Hillsong?
Leona and Josh Kimes resigned as co-pastors of Hillsong Boston in April 2022. Their departure came shortly after an internal investigation report into Hillsong NYC was leaked. Around the same time, Josh admitted to sending a racist text message to colleagues. Both cited immense pain endured while building the church in America and said they were ready for a fresh start.
What happened to the Hillsong singers?
After the Hillsong Church scandals, many artists including Hillsong United and Hillsong Worship distanced themselves from the brand. Some continued their music careers independently. Despite the church’s reputational collapse, the Hillsong music catalog remains widely used in churches around the world.
What happened to Carl Lentz?
Carl Lentz was fired from Hillsong NYC in November 2020 for moral failures including adultery. In May 2021, Leona Kimes accused him of sexual abuse in her Medium essay Writing My Voice Back. He denied all allegations. His full story was later covered in the FX and Hulu documentary The Secrets of Hillsong, which aired in May 2023.
What is Hillsong?
Hillsong Church is a global evangelical megachurch founded in Sydney, Australia in the 1980s by Brian Houston and Bobbie Houston. It grew to over 130 locations worldwide and became famous for its worship music and celebrity congregation. From 2020 onwards, major leadership scandals led to the closure of several American campuses and the resignation of founder Brian Houston in 2022.
Conclusion
The story of Leona Kimes biography doesn’t end with a neat resolution. Real life rarely does. What it offers instead is something more valuable — a clear-eyed portrait of a woman who chose truth over comfort, accountability over silence, and healing over bitterness. That choice cost her enormously. It cost her a community she had given decades to. It cost her the institutional security of Hillsong Church. It cost her the version of her life she had imagined when she and Josh Kimes boarded a plane from Sydney, Australia, to New York City full of hope and determination.
But here is what that choice gave her in return. It gave her back her voice. It gave the Leona Kimes Writing My Voice Back essay — a piece of writing that reached millions of people and gave language to experiences that countless survivors had never been able to articulate. It gave the global conversation about church abuse culture a human face and a specific story to anchor itself to. It gave every person who had ever felt trapped inside a toxic workplace within a religious institution the permission to say — This happened to me too and it was not my fault.
