Jim Bakker, who along with first wife Tammy Faye Bakker built an evangelical empire around the hugely successful "The PTL Club" TV show, only to lose it all over a Clearwater Beach sex scandal and financial crimes, has died. He was 86.
Bakker died Monday, his second wife, Lori Bakker, said in a statement. His cause of death was not immediately clear.
"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," she said.
The pair lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson and filmed their TV show "The Jim Bakker Show" there since it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.
At its peak in the mid-1980s, the Bakkers' ministry not only included "The PTL Club," drawing up to 13 million nightly viewers, but also the Christian-based Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Sand Key, Jessica Hahn and financial crimes
In March 1987, their empire began to crack when Bakker admitted to a 15-minute sexual encounter more than six years earlier with church clerk Jessica Hahn in Room 538 of the Sheraton Sand Key Resort.
On Dec. 4, 1980, Hahn, then 21, said she got a call from Oklahoma evangelist John Wesley Fletcher, whom she had known from his crusades at the Long Island church where she worked. Fletcher was a friend of Bakker's and a frequent guest on "The PTL Club."
Hahn, a fan of the Bakkers, said she jumped at Fletcher's invitation to come to Clearwater to meet Bakker and babysit his children while he worked at a telethon. At the time, PTL frequently went on the road for fundraising broadcasts and special events.
Instead, Hahn said she was taken to the hotel room, where Bakker had sex with her.
Bakker later authorized a $279,000 hush-money payout to Hahn using PTL funds.
After the Charlotte Observer broke the story in 1987, Bakker was forced to resign from his empire, turning over operations to pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell.
Tammy Faye stuck by Bakker, often with tears running down her mascara, even as many saw his downfall as a fitting symbol of the greed and hypocrisy of the 1980s.
Things only got worse.
In 1988, Bakker was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL's finances. He was convicted and sentenced during a trial in Charlotte, North Carolina, to 45 years in federal prison, though the sentence was later reduced to eight years.
At a news conference after Bakker was found guilty, Tammy Faye stood in front of the microphones and sang the hymn, "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand."
Their marriage crumbled and Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992, just short of their 31st anniversary, while he was still in prison. In 1993, she married Roe Messner, a building contractor whose projects included the Heritage USA theme park. Messner was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 1995 and spent about two years in prison.
Tammy Faye Messner died of colon cancer in 2007.
Bakker was released on parole in 1994. He married Lori Bakker in 1998. The couple launched "The Jim Bakker Show" on the PTL Satellite Network five years later.
In June 2021, Bakker and his Morningside Church Productions settled a lawsuit accusing him of falsely claiming the health supplement Silver Solution could cure COVID-19. The settlement called for $156,000 in refunds to people who paid money or gave contributions to obtain the product in the early days of the pandemic.
The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March 2020.
Bakker got his start as a traveling preacher
Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met Tammy Faye. They married in 1961 and dropped out of college to start their own traveling ministry — he preached, she sang and played the accordion as they crossed the country visiting churches and tent revivals.
They caught the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson, and in 1965 launched a children's show on Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1966, he was hosting "The 700 Club," a Christian talk show.
Bakker left CBN in 1972 and two years later formed the PTL Satellite Network. "The PTL Club" — PTL stands for "Praise the Lord" — became its signature show.
When it hit its heyday in the 1980s, "The PTL Club" was drawing millions of viewers — and bringing in millions of dollars annually from followers.
The show featured chats with guests and Christian entertainers. Bakker offered upbeat sermons and Tammy Faye — charismatic and always wearing her trademark heavy mascara — sang. Most episodes were taped at their sprawling complex just south of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The couple was so famous that they were often parodied by TV comedians for their lavish lifestyle and Tammy Faye's abundant makeup. A theatrical movie on their lives, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," was released in September 2021.
Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker had two children. He and his second wife adopted five children in 2002.
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