Jimmy Bakker Net Worth 2026

Jimmy (Jim) Bakker, the televangelist behind the 1970s–80s PTL empire and today's The Jim Bakker Show, has a net worth of about $50,000, according to Celebrity Net Worth (checked September 2026). That tiny figure reflects a fall from ministry revenue that once reached $1 million a week: his 1989 fraud conviction, millions owed to the IRS, and his own claim that he has taken no salary from his ministry for decades.

What is Jimmy Bakker's net worth?

Celebrity Net Worth puts Jim Bakker's net worth at $50,000. The earlier version of this page gave the same number at the top, then said $12.5 million lower down and listed an income table in which the yearly and monthly figures were both $50,000. Those contradictions have been removed, and the page now uses only the attributed estimate.

Bakker has said publicly that he lives on his wife Lori's income and Social Security, not a ministry salary. In a May 2025 broadcast he said he had taken no salary for about 40 years, The Roys Report reported. That claim cannot be checked, because his ministry operates under a church, and churches do not have to file public financial returns.

Where the money came from, and where it went

• PTL at its peak. In the 1980s he and then-wife Tammy Faye brought in about $1 million a week in viewer donations, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
• Personal use of ministry funds. An IRS review later found that $1.3 million in ministry money was set aside for the Bakkers' personal use between 1980 and 1983.
• Debts. When he was paroled in 1994, he still owed about $6 million to the IRS, and a $500,000 fine from his original sentence was later voided on appeal.
• Current ministry. Donations and product sales through Morningside Church and The Jim Bakker Show in southwest Missouri. He has told viewers the ministry carries heavy debt.

Early life and first ministry

James Orsen Bakker was born on January 2, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan, according to Wikipedia. He attended North Central University in Minneapolis, an Assemblies of God college, where he met Tammy Faye LaValley. They married in 1961 and left college to become traveling evangelists. In 1966 they joined Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, hosting a children's program, and Bakker became the first host of The 700 Club. After leaving in 1972, they helped Paul and Jan Crouch start what became Trinity Broadcasting Network, before moving on within a year.

PTL and Heritage USA

Celebrity Net Worth describes Heritage USA as a hugely popular theme park in its day. Its unfinished 21-story hotel tower in Fort Mill was abandoned when the ministry went bankrupt in 1987. In June 2026, MorningStar Fellowship Church, which owns the site and has no connection to the Bakker era, said it would tear the tower down and build 340 senior housing units beside it, the Rock Hill Herald reported.

Recent changes (2025–2026)

In May 2025, Bakker, then 85, asked viewers for $1 million. He said the PTL Network and his show would go off the air within about a month without it, and that he could lose his house if the ministry were foreclosed. He urged 1,000 viewers to give $1,000 each. The broadcast was later removed from his website and YouTube channel, according to The Roys Report.

Earlier, in March 2020, Missouri's attorney general sued Bakker and Morningside Church Productions over claims on his show that a product called Silver Solution could cure COVID-19. In June 2021 they settled, agreeing to pay $156,000 in restitution to buyers and to stop marketing the product as a cure, the Associated Press reported. Bakker did not admit wrongdoing.

Family

Bakker's first wife was Tammy Faye, his partner in building PTL. He is now married to Lori Beth Graham, who co-hosts his programs, and he has seven children in total, including minister Jay Bakker, according to Wikipedia. His son Ricky Bakker appears as a co-host on the show. The old page's age of 50, height and weight were wrong and have been removed.

Net worth compared

Other faith and media figures profiled here include Devon Levesque and Ali Von Paris. Bakker's case is unusual: a man who once ran one of the country's biggest religious broadcasting operations now has an estimated net worth lower than many small-business owners.

How this figure was reached

The $50,000 estimate comes from Celebrity Net Worth, which weighs his known income, debts and assets. It fits the public record of IRS debt, a conviction, and a ministry that he says is in financial trouble. Morningside's finances are not public, so the exact figure cannot be verified independently.