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| Scandal-plagued Jim Bakker, who built a television empire with ex-wife Tammy Faye, dies at 86 |
| 2026-10-06 |
| [DM] 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 became riddled 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. Hahn claimed that in 1980 she met the married televangelist in a hotel room in Clearwater Beach under the guise that she would be watching his show after she was invited by a colleague. However, in 2017 she told the Charlotte Observer they had sex and that she was made to keep quiet: 'It was "Just keep your mouth shut, Jess, because this is a church."' |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2026-10-06 15:36 |