Jim Bakker's decades-long ministry crumbled after the scandal involving Jessica Hahn became public, while Hahn later stepped away from the spotlight and controversy.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleJim Bakker's death at 86 has brought renewed attention to the dramatic rise and fall of one of America's most recognizable televangelists. At the height of his career, Bakker and his then-wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, built a Christian television empire around the chat show The PTL Club.
But in 1987, his ministry unraveled after a sexual encounter with church secretary Jessica Hahn became public, followed by revelations about money paid to keep the matter quiet.
Hahn's life changed dramatically after she became the woman at the center of one of the biggest scandals in televangelism.
Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye rose to national prominence in the 1970s through The PTL Club, before the couple eventually expanded their ministry into the massive Heritage USA Christian resort in South Carolina. However, the couple's success came crashing down after Bakker's 1980 sexual encounter with Hahn, then a 21-year-old church secretary, was exposed to the public.
Hahn later said the encounter was not consensual, alleging that Bakker had used his position and religious authority to manipulate her. She alleged that she was deceived, drugged, and raped by Bakker and fellow preacher John Wesley Fletcher.
The televangelist, on the other hand, described it as a consensual sexual encounter and later said he had been 'wickedly manipulated.' The competing accounts have remained part of their complicated history over the years.
The controversy became public in 1987, when The Charlotte Observer revealed the illicit payoffs made to Hahn's account to keep the incident from becoming public. As a chain reaction, Bakker soon resigned from his long-held position at PTL in March 1987.
Bakker's troubles did not end with the sex scandal. He was later convicted on 24 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy charges connected to the PTL ministry and served nearly five years in prison. While incarcerated, his wife, Tammy Faye, ended her marriage via divorce in 1992.
Tammy Faye went on to marry church builder Roe Messner the following year and eventually died from cancer in 2007. Hahn later revealed she had a phone call with Tammy not long before her death.
Hahn later became a media figure herself and made notable appearances in Playboy and on television. Decades after the scandal, she spoke openly about the experience and how it had affected her.
In a 2017 interview with The Charlotte Observer, Hahn said she had only begun confronting her anger about the experience years later. Speaking about Bakker, she said, "He just believed that everybody should serve him because he was serving God."
Hahn also reflected on the choices she made after suddenly finding herself in the public eye. Taking advantage of her popularity after the scandal, she posed nude three times for Playboy. Those decisions, Hahn said, turned her into "pretty much a cartoon character."
The Massapequa-born former church secretary described waking up at night thinking about what had happened and said she had come to understand why people sometimes remain silent about traumatic experiences for years. She told the outlet:
“People used to say, ‘Jessica, you kept quiet for eight years. Why?’ Well, there were a million reasons.”
She also spoke warmly about Tammy Faye, revealing that the two women eventually spoke by phone before Tammy Faye died in 2007. Hahn remembered the former televangelist's kindness, saying she had the biggest heart and Hahn always wanted to be like her growing up. She shared:
"She had the biggest heart. She goes, ‘Jessica, if I were with you right now, I’d hug you.’ And I just died inside. It was like, 'Oh my God, what she had to go through.'... When I was younger, I wanted to be her...I loved her. I loved her makeup."
After her initial fame, Hahn eventually stepped away from the spotlight and opted for a quieter life. In her 2017 interview, she described living on a ranch north of Los Angeles with her then-husband, retired movie stuntman Frank Lloyd, and their animals. Hahn said at the time:
“I moved out into the country to just start over. ... You really grow up when you’re all alone. I mean, I’m married and all, but we live out in the woods. ... Boy, have I changed from what I used to be like.”
Hahn and Lloyd later separated, and PEOPLE reported in 2023 that their marriage had ended after spending several years apart. Their divorce filing cited irreconcilable differences.
Over the years, there have been few major public updates about Hahn (now 67), but she has largely remained out of the entertainment spotlight. Regardless, her story continues to resurface whenever the controversial history of Bakker and PTL is revisited.
Jim Bakker died on October 5, 2026, as confirmed by his second wife, Lori Bakker. His cause of death was not immediately disclosed. In a statement, Lori remembered Bakker as a Christian television pioneer who spent 66 years preaching and asked for prayers and privacy for the family.
Even after Bakker’s death, his highly publicized scandal with Hahn remains a resurfacing chapter of his controversial legacy.
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