Tammy Faye Bakker’s daughter breaks silence in rare interview



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When Tammy Faye Bakker’s daughter Tammy Sue remembers her mother, she remembers her singing. Not the song the bubbly televangelist sang on her popular Christmas specials or on her dozens of albums. That’s how she sang at home.

“She sang differently when we were at home than when she was living or recording,” Tammy Sue Bakker said TODAY. “I loved hearing that voice. It was almost like this gorgeous 40s thing she would do, and I begged her to (please) record that. Unfortunately, she never did. There are so many wonderful things that I wish the world would know about her.

Even if she wants to share these strangers, Tammy Sue does not really want to reflect with the media on the legacy of her mother, who died in 2007. It is painful for her. Her mother once said, “I won’t go ahead looking in the rearview mirror in my life,” and, well, like mother, like daughter.

But right now, with her family back in the limelight again because of a new movie, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Tammy Sue feels like she doesn’t really have a choice.

Unseen family photo of Tammy Faye Bakker with her children Tammy Sue and Jay.Courtesy of Tammy Sue Bakker

“It’s been very difficult in my life because people have made movies, books, articles, TV shows, plays, musicals and all kinds of things about my family,” he said. -she explains. However, she said that neither she nor her brother had been consulted on these plans. Last week, when she turned on the television to watch a rerun of “Modern Family,” a reference to Tammy Faye Bakker appeared.

“I’m a big girl and it’s normal, but it’s not really normal,” she said. “It’s strange to live this life.

“So when I first saw that they were going to do this movie, frankly, I wasn’t happy, only because I was like… it’s gone again.”

Based on a 2000 documentary of the same name, the new film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” starring Jessica Chastain chronicles how Tammy Faye Bakker and Jim Bakker became two of the most powerful figures in the televangelical world before their fall in 1987. Jim Bakker was convicted of fraud and served five years in prison – but although she was never criminally involved herself, Tammy Faye suffered massive consequences for her husband’s crimes and was for years a social outcast and an outcast.

About this, her daughter said: “She never really had the unconditional love that she gave to so many people, and that’s what makes me sad because she just wanted to love everyone. . “

In tandem with the biopic, released Friday, Tammy Sue Bakker met TODAY for her first interview in 17 years. Reluctant to open up, the 51-year-old graciously shared her mother’s memories in the hopes that people will better understand the woman behind the wigs and makeup which her daughter says is still poorly understood to this day.

“Make-up was very important to people”

Tammy Sue Bakker never got the chance to pick the scene for herself. “She was born on the set of a TV show,” her parents often joked. The Bakkers were almost like a first iteration of the Kardashians, with their personal lives billed as their own form of entertainment.

“It’s funny because someone else has made that reference before,” Tammy Sue said of the comparison to the Kardashians. “We sent Christmas cards to all the viewers, we were on my mom’s albums, on magazine covers, in books and all that stuff that we did. Our lives were very open and mostly exposed to the world. “

When Tammy Sue was born in 1970, the Bakkers were set to become the co-founders of the PTL network, which stood for Praise the Lord. At its peak, it reached 20 million viewers in dozens of countries. They also built Heritage USA, a huge resort in South Carolina that included a Christian-themed amusement park. Growing up, Tammy Sue found solace on stage as a singer. In 1986, when she was only 16, she released her first Christian album, “16”, which was avant-garde and progressive for the time.

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