Jim Bakker, the disgraced televangelist who built and lost a Christian television empire amid a $279,000 hush-money scandal and fraud convictions in the 1980s, died on October 5, 2026, his widow Lori announced. He was 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," Lori Bakker wrote on "The Jim Bakker Show" Facebook page. She praised her husband as a pioneer of Christian television, writing that "for 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ" and describing him as her husband, best friend and companion through seasons of life and ministry.

Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and believed he was called to "make Jesus real" to the world. He attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where he met his first wife, Tammy Faye LaValley. The two married in 1961, dropped out of college and traveled the country as itinerant evangelists, with Bakker preaching and Tammy Faye singing and playing accordion at churches and tent revivals.

Bakker joined Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network in the 1960s, becoming the first host of "The 700 Club." After eight years he left CBN and launched television ministries across the United States before settling in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he founded "The PTL Club," the show he co-hosted with Tammy Faye from 1974 to 1987. At its peak, PTL drew millions of viewers and a flood of donations.

The empire collapsed in spectacular fashion in 1987 when it emerged that Bakker had paid $279,000 in hush money to church secretary Jessica Hahn over an alleged sexual encounter. He resigned from the ministry, and in 1989 a federal jury convicted him of 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy for overselling lifetime partnerships in a Christian theme park. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison, later reduced, and served nearly five years before his 1994 release.

Bakker rebuilt a smaller ministry in later years, hosting "The Jim Bakker Show" with his second wife Lori and selling survival food and apocalyptic merchandise. Even in his final act, scandal followed him: in 2020 the Missouri attorney general sued him for selling colloidal silver as a cure for COVID-19, and he settled multiple fraud claims. His death closes the book on one of the most notorious falls from grace in the history of American televangelism, a cautionary tale of faith, money and hubris that reshaped how the public views religious broadcasting.