Jim Bakker, who co-founded "The PTL Club" but fell into disgrace, dies at 86

Branson, Mo. — Jim Bakker, who along with his first wife Tammy Faye built an evangelical empire around the hugely successful "The PTL Club" TV show, only to lose it all over a sex scandal and financial crimes, has died. He was 86.Bakker died Monday, his second wife, Lori Bakker, said in a statement. His cause of death was not immediately clear. The pair lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson and filmed their TV show, "The Jim Bakker Show," there since it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020. "He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry," Lori Bakker said in a statement.

"Jim loved people deeply. He loved this ministry, and he loved the friends and partners who stood with him throughout the years. Even in his final days, his heart was still for the work of God and for the Gospel to continue reaching the world."But it was another evangelical program that made Jim and his first wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, cultural icons – so much so that they were often skewered in the 1980s and 1990s by late-night comedians and parodied on "Saturday Night Live." A theatrical