US televangelist Jim Bakker, who constructed a multimillion-dollar media empire before being jailed for fraud and conspiracy, has died aged 86.
Bakker and his then-wife Tammy Faye based a Christian tv programme called The PTL Club in 1974, which at its peak attracted 13 million viewers per day.
The 86-year-old’s death was announced on Monday by his second spouse Lori Bakker, who described him as “a pioneer of Christian television”.
By the late 80s, Bakker and Tammy Faye’s empire started to crumble after he grew to become embroiled by a intercourse scandal and later conviction of mail and wire fraud. Tammy Faye, who divorced him in 1992, was never charged.
Bakker remarried in 1998, and alongside second spouse Lori launched a new TV ministry in 2003.
Lori Bakker described her late husband as “my best friend, and the main I was honoured to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry”.
She did not specify the cause of death.
However Bakker’s first program The PTL Club, “Praise the Lord” or “People That Love” was what cemented his fame with his first spouse Tammy Faye.
The couple constructed their empire with 2,000 workers and a 2,300 acre (930 hectare) Heritage USA theme park complicated in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
The Bakkers had a famously opulent way of life, proudly owning a non-public jet, a number of houses, luxurious automobiles, jewelry and even an air-conditioned canine home.
In 1987, Bakker resigned from the PTL ministry after revelations of a 1980 sexual encounter with a former church secretary Jessica Hahn.
It later emerged Hanhn acquired a $265,000 payoff with ministry funds, ensuing in Bakker to be defrocked of his ministerial credentials and proper to carry out non secular duties.
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