Who was Jim Bakker? Televangelist who built an empire based on faith and was rocked by a sex scandal, dies at 86

Televangelist Jim Bakker, who gained prominence and popularity in the 1970s and 1980s before resigning from his ministry, has died at the age of 86. The news of his death was announced by his wife, Lori Bakker, on social media on Monday (October 5). "It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening," Lori Bakker said in a post on Facebook.

Lori Bakker's statement

"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," Lori added in the statement.


"Jim loved people deeply. He loved this ministry, and he loved the friends and partners who stood with him throughout the years." Bakker's cause of death was not revealed in the statement.

An evangelistic empire

During his years of fame, Bakker and his wife at the time, Tammy Faye, ran the evangelistic empire "Praise the Lord" from suburban Charlotte, North Carolina, for roughly 15 years. The couple hosted "The PTL Club" -- one of the most popular Christian TV programs of that period.

In 1987, Bakker resigned from the PTL ministry after the unearthing of a financial and sex scandal involving a much younger secretary, whom he had paid to stay mum. Two years later, the televangelist was charged with fraud and subsequently sentenced to 45 years in prison, though he served less than five.

Bakker and Faye started the Inspiration Network and “The PTL Club" program in 1974. After four years, the Heritage USA theme park was opened at the network headquarters in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The Heritage USA Grand Hotel came up in 1984, followed by a water park in 1986. At its peak, PTL was raking in over $128 million per year and was carried on 1,300 cable systems with 12 million subscribers.

Bakker's fall from grace

In March 1987, Bakker resigned from PTL after paying hush money to a secretary, Jessica Hahn, with whom he had an affair. Hahn was given a one-time $115,000 payment and monthly interest payments from a $150,000 trust fund. The next month, PTL filed for bankruptcy protection. In December 1988, Bakker was indicted for fraud and conspiring to defraud churchgoers of $158 million.

The following year, Bakker was convicted of 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy, and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Faye divorced Bakker while he was imprisoned, and married the construction magnate Roe Messner in 1993. She died of inoperable cancer at the age of 65 in 2007.