{"id":2182169,"date":"2026-10-06T13:31:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T10:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2182169"},"modified":"2026-10-06T13:31:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T10:31:56","slug":"us-televangelist-jim-bakker-disgraced-from-sex-scandal-and-fraud-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2182169","title":{"rendered":"US televangelist Jim Bakker, disgraced from sex scandal and fraud, dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/1306\/live\/74e63400-c189-11f1-83c7-97e75190a976.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
US televangelist Jim Bakker’s death was announced on Monday by his second wife Lori Bakker<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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US televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a multimillion-dollar media empire before being jailed for fraud and conspiracy, has died aged 86.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bakker and his then-wife Tammy Faye founded a Christian television programme called The PTL Club in 1974, which at its peak attracted 13 million viewers per day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 86-year-old’s death was announced on Monday by his second wife Lori Bakker, who described him as “a pioneer of Christian television”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By the late 80s, Bakker and Tammy Faye’s empire began to fall apart after he became embroiled in a sex scandal and later convicted of mail and wire fraud. Tammy Faye, who divorced him in 1992, was never charged.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bakker remarried in 1998, and alongside second wife Lori launched a new TV ministry in 2003.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lori Bakker described her late husband as “my best friend, and the man I was honoured to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She did not specify the cause of death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However, Bakker’s first program The PTL Club – short for ‘Praise the Lord’ or ‘People That Love’ – was what cemented his fame with his first wife Tammy Faye.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The couple built their empire with 2,000 employees and a 2,300-acre (930-hectare) Heritage USA theme park complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Bakkers had a famously opulent lifestyle, owning a private jet, multiple homes, luxury cars, jewellery and even an air-conditioned dog house.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In 1987, Bakker resigned from the PTL ministry after revelations of a 1980 sexual encounter with a former church secretary Jessica Hahn. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It later emerged Hanhn received a $265,000 payoff with ministry funds, resulting in Bakker being defrocked of his ministerial credentials and right to perform religious duties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker had a famously opulent lifestyle, owning a private jet, multiple homes and luxury cars<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hahn also accused Bakker of sexual assault, though the evangelist denied this, claiming the encounter had been consensual.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bakker was then convicted in 1989 of 24 counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy in a scheme involving their Christian theme park, and served more than four years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tammy Faye stayed with her husband throughout the trial but divorced him in 1992 while he was in prison. She died of cancer in 2007.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Following Bakker’s release from prison in 1994, he wrote a book titled I Was Wrong and married his second wife Lori in 1998.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The couple began a TV ministry together in 2003 and in 2008 they began taping The Jim Bakker Show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ckly02gd1xppo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/1306\/live\/74e63400-c189-11f1-83c7-97e75190a976.jpg”] Getty Images US televangelist Jim Bakker’s death was announced on Monday by his second wife Lori Bakker US televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a multimillion-dollar media empire before being jailed for fraud and conspiracy, has died aged 86. Bakker and his then-wife Tammy Faye founded a Christian television programme called The PTL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2182169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2182169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2182169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2182169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2182169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}