US televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a multimillion‑dollar media empire before being jailed for fraud and conspiracy, has died aged 86.
In 1974 Bakker and his then‑wife Tammy Faye founded the PTL Club, a Christian television programme that at its peak attracted 13 million viewers per day.
His death was announced on Monday by his second wife Lori Bakker, who called him “a pioneer of Christian television.”
By the late 1980s the Bakker empire began to unravel after a 1980 sex scandal involving former church secretary Jessica Hahn and a later conviction of mail and wire fraud; Tammy Faye divorced him in 1992, though she was never charged.
Following his release from prison in 1994, Bakker wrote the book “I Was Wrong” and in 1998 married Lori. The couple launched a new TV ministry in 2003 and began taping “The Jim Bakker Show” in 2008.
The Bakkers were known for an opulent lifestyle, owning a private jet, multiple homes, luxury cars, jewellery and even an air‑conditioned dog house.
In 1987 Bakker resigned from the PTL ministry after revelations of a sexual encounter with Jessica Hahn, who later claimed the affair had been consensual. He was defrocked and stripped of his ministerial credentials.
He was convicted in 1989 on 24 counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy linked to their Christian theme park, serving more than four years in federal prison.
Tammy Faye remained with him throughout the trial but divorced him in 1992 while he was in prison; she died of cancer in 2007.
