Controversial televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a Christian television empire, died Monday at the age of 86.
‘It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening,’ his wife, Lori Bakker, wrote.
Lori said Bakker’s final moments were filled with faith after he devoted 66 years of his life to preaching the gospel.
Bakker was best known for hosting The PTL Club, short for The Praise the Lord Club, a popular Christian television show that aired from the 1970s through the late 1980s, as well as developing Heritage USA, the now-defunct Christian theme park.
The show was launched with his ex-wife, Tammy Faye Messner, reaching as many as 13 million views daily while generating an annual revenue of as much as $129 million, before the empire was hit with scandal.
Bakker handed in his resignation to the ministry in 1987 after allegedly paying $265,000 in hush money to a church secretary, Jessica Hahn, who said she had been sexually assaulted by Bakker while she was 21 years old.
Bakker disputed her account of a sexual assault, but he also published a book, I Was Wrong, in which he claimed that the sex was consensual.
Reverend Jerry Falwell took over the PTL ministry also suggested that Bakker was gay and called him ‘the greatest scab and a cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history.’
Jim Bakker, who built a Christian television empire, died Monday at the age of 86
‘It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening,’ his wife, Lori Bakker, (Pictured) wrote
Bakker was best known for hosting The PTL Club, which he launched with his ex-wife, Tammy Faye Messner(Pictured)
Just two years later, he was involved in another scandal after he was convicted in 1989 on 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after raising and misusing $400 million in ministry funds.
During the trial, Bakker suffered, what was described as a mental breakdown, after he was discovered in his attorney’s office hallucinating and was taken to a psychiatric facility.
He was sentenced to 45 years in prison and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine.
Bakker appealed his sentence and was granted a reduction of just eight years, ultimately only serving about five years before he was released.
Messner, who shared two children with Bakker, divorced him while he was incarcerated.
That same year his wife left him, Bakker told CNN in an interview that his affair with Hahn was a mistake.
‘God’s forgiveness is the only thing. And, you know, I take full responsibility for the adultery. It was my fault,’ said Bakker.
‘And, you know, no matter what went on, the man has to take responsibility, and I do.’
Hahn went on to pose for Playboy magazine several times and made regular appearances on The Howard Stern Show for years afterward.
Bakker allegedly paid $200,000 in hush money to a church secretary, Jessica Hahn, (Pictured) who said she had been sexually assaulted by Bakker
In 1989 Bakker was convicted of 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy after raising and misusing $400 million in ministry funds
Shortly after divorcing Bakker, his ex-wife married Roe Messner, the contractor who built Heritage USA, however he was also sentenced to over two years in prison for bankruptcy fraud.
Messner announced in 2005 that she had cancer and made a final run of TV appearances before she died in 2007.
Following Bakker’s release, he began launching a new ministry called Morningside in the Ozarks of Missouri.
In 2003, he brought on his second wife, Lori, to host his daily TV show, The Jim Bakker Show, before the couple began selling doomsday products for the ‘end of the world.’
‘Even in his final days, his heart was still for the work of God and for the Gospel to continue reaching the world,’ wrote Lori on Monday.
‘Our family is grieving and we ask for your prayers and privacy during this time.’
Bakker’s cause of death has not been revealed at the time of this report.
According to the New York Times, he suffered what was described as a mild stroke in 2020.
