Former televangelist Jim Bakker dies at 86

Jim Bakker, who built a nationwide evangelical television ministry with his first wife Tammy Faye, died on Monday at the age of 86, his second wife Lori Bakker said. The cause of death has not been disclosed. > "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," Lori Bakker added in a statement.

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Bakker began as a traveling preacher before joining Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network in the mid-1960s. He later created the PTL Satellite Network and hosted "The PTL Club," which at its peak in the mid-1980s attracted up to 13 million nightly viewers and generated substantial revenue, supporting a theme park and hotel in South Carolina.

The couple’s prominence ended in 1987 when Bakker acknowledged a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn, leading to his resignation and the transfer of PTL operations to Jerry Falwell. In 1988 Bakker was indicted and later convicted on mail-fraud, wire-fraud and conspiracy charges, receiving a sentence later reduced to eight years. He was released on parole in 1994.

After his release, Bakker married Lori Bakker in 1998 and revived his broadcasting career with "The Jim Bakker Show," filmed near Branson, Missouri, beginning in 2003. In 2021 his ministry settled a lawsuit alleging false claims that a health supplement could cure COVID-19, agreeing to refund $156,000 to purchasers.

Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020 and had previously adopted five children with Lori. Tammy Faye Bakker died of colon cancer in 2007.