Jim Bakker, the televangelist who built a South Carolina religious empire before federal prosecutors took it apart, died Monday at 86. His widow, Lori Bakker, announced his death on “The Jim Bakker Show” Facebook page.
“It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening,” she wrote. “For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry.”
Bakker built his following with “The PTL Club,” a show he hosted with his first wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, from 1974 to 1989. The pair ran a South Carolina operation that included the PTL Satellite Network and the Heritage USA theme park, which once drew millions of visitors before it closed in 1989.
The operation collapsed in 1987 when it emerged that Bakker had paid $279,000 in hush money to church secretary Jessica Hahn, who accused him of raping her in 1980, according to People. Bakker admitted to having sex with Hahn but said it was consensual. He resigned from PTL — short for Praise the Lord — and Jerry Falwell took over the ministry, ABC News reported in 2019.
Federal investigators then moved in on PTL and the Bakkers, who had amassed several homes, a jet and Rolls-Royces during the ministry’s rise. Jim Bakker was convicted on 24 counts of fraud and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He served five years before being paroled in 1994, according to ABC.
He and Tammy Faye divorced in 1992 after 31 years of marriage and two children. She died of cancer in 2007.
Bakker’s legal troubles resurfaced decades later. In 2021 he and his Morningside Church Productions were ordered to pay $156,000 for marketing a colloidal silver supplement they claimed could cure COVID-19.
Bakker married Lori in 1998, and the couple adopted five children. In 2003 they launched “The Jim Bakker Show,” which his website bio says debuted “sixteen years to the date that Pastor Jim had made his last broadcast from PTL.”
“Jim loved people deeply. He loved this ministry, and he loved the friends and partners who stood with him throughout the years. Even in his final days, his heart was still for the work of God and for the Gospel to continue reaching the world,” Lori Bakker’s statement said. “Our family is grieving and we ask for your prayers and privacy during this time. Jim finished his race with faith. His voice, his vision, and his legacy will never be forgotten.”
