Hillsong founder Brian Houston has taken aim at the church's board, saying he was "squeezed out" as senior pastor after being charged with covering up his father's child sexual abuse.
Mr Houston made the comments during a speech streamed live to his 340,000 Facebook followers this morning.
Mr Houston in January stepped down as the director of all Hillsong boards to defend a criminal charge that he concealed his father's child sexual abuse.
He denies wrongdoing.
A three-week hearing has been scheduled for December.
In March, Hillsong's board apologised to its congregation after its own investigations found two incidents of "serious concern".
Mr Houston resigned after the internal probe.
However, in a pre-recorded message released today, he said the church board had helped create a "false narrative, gossip and speculation" about him.
"The narrative that I am an alcoholic is false," Mr Houston told his Facebook followers.
"I am deeply sorry for the people I've hurt."
In March, Hillsong claimed the "serious incidents" included a 2019 instance where Mr Houston "knocked on the door of a hotel room that wasn't his" and interacted with a woman under the influence of anxiety medication and alcohol.
Hillsong also claimed Mr Houston had sent inappropriate text messages to a member of staff about 10 years ago, while under the "influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence".
Today, Mr Houston said he was no longer dependent on sleeping tablets, and incidents with drugs and alcohol were now rare.
"The notorious night in 2019 where I mixed a double dose of anti-anxiety tablets with alcohol was a one-off occasion," he explained.
The 67-year-old also apologised to the Hillsong congregation for appearing to have abandoned them, saying his resignation letter to the board explicitly stated that while his position as senior pastor was untenable, he wanted to stay on in an "active role as founding pastor".
"Sadly, in the statements and announcements made there was enough detail to pour ultimate shame and humiliation on me, but enough ambiguity to leave people to make their own conclusions about what did and didn't happen," he said.
Mr Houston said his wife Bobbie had been ostracised because of their exit from the church, even though she had done nothing wrong.
