Bravo’s “Thicker Than Water” returns Sunday for its second season documenting the lives of gospel great Ben Tankard and his blended family.
While you may know Tankard as the “Godfather of Gospel Jazz” and the loving patriarch of his family — or the man who first signed gospel notable Yolanda Adams to a recording deal — there’s much more to this family than meets the eye.
And that’s what “Thicker Than Water” will explore this season as it delves into more family dirt and drama, from sisters/aunties hiding the fact that their water has been turned off — because they didn’t pay their bills — to the extremes (Aunt Junice’s husband, Rock, jailed for parking/traffic violations).
“I was not around for my other children when they were growing up,” Ben Tankard tells The Post. “I was still working towards my goals so I was not around as much. So I do feel like I need to make up for lost time and help my kids in every way possible.”
All the Tankard children return for Season 2: Marcus, 27, who playfully refers to himself as the “college oops” (due to his father’s one-night- stand with his mom while attending college); problem child Brooklyn, 26, mother of 10-year-old daughter Diamond; Britney, 24, who proudly shows off her 30-pound weight loss and is ready to find a husband; Benji, 23, who still hasn’t quite figured out how to be mature and sexy (while still living in his father’s house with his wife, Shanira); and Cyrene, 19, who’s constantly reminded by her half-siblings that she grew up with the rich version of their daddy (they’re secretly envious).
Ben, 50, met his wife Jewel back in 2000 at a concert in Detroit. “I told Jewel, ‘You are the woman I saw in my dreams,’ ” he says. “After a lengthy conversation that lasted till 4 a.m., I told her to send me all of [her] bills — and I have been paying them ever since.”
But don’t underestimate Jewel. She hosts a radio show, “The Jewel Tankard Show,” which airs weekdays on Nashville gospel station 760 AM. The show revolves around various topics, including how to manage a financial portfolio.
Ben and Jewel — who are non-salaried senior pastors of Destiny Center Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn. — are known for their evangelization of the Bible and for telling their congregants that God wants all his children to be millionaires. And they’re practicing what they preach, literally, with fancy cars, a collection of private planes and a luxury home.
Ben grew up poor in Daytona Beach, Fla., picking peanuts and oranges as a child. For five years, he lived in an abandoned movie theater.
“I grew up dirt-poor, where there was no running water,” he says. “So after I cleaned up the chicken poop on the farm, I had to go straight to school, where the kids would tease me relentlessly and call me ‘stinky chicken poo.’ ”
He says he has no regrets about airing his family’s less-than-pristine laundry on national television.
“There are times when one of the kids does run into trouble, but it is just another life situation,” he says. “There is really no telling who it can be. It’s like, ‘Who took their stupid pills today?’”
“Thicker Than Water” airs 9 p.m Sunday on Bravo.