Jessica Hahn Biography

(Model)

Birthday: July 7, 1959 (Cancer)

Born In: Massapequa, New York, United States

Jessica Hahn is an American model and actress, who accused Jim Bakker of drugging and raping her. Born and raised as an ardent Catholic, she grew up in New York City and attended the Massapequa High School. While she was 14 years old, she left her Catholic Christian faith and adopted the Full Gospel Tabernacle. Following her high school graduation, she joined the church full time and in 1980, she moved to Florida to work as a church secretary at the PTL Ministry, run by the famous televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife. She worked there for a decade, from 1977 to 1987. In 1987, following Jim’s resignation from the network, news reports broke out about financial irregularities within the organization. Jessica also accused Jim of drugging and raping her in December 1980. This led to a massive media uproar, as Jim defended himself by saying the encounter was consensual. Following thenews of this scandal, Jessica’s modelling and acting career took off. Apart from appearing in the Playboy magazine’s November and December 1987 editions, she appeared playing small/supporting roles in series’ such as Married... with Children, Dream On, and Unhappily Ever After.

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Quick Facts

Age: 64 Years, 64 Year Old Females

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Frank Lloyd

mother: Jessica Moylan

Partner: Ron Leavitt (1991–2008)

Born Country: United States

Models Actresses

Height: 5'4" (163 cm), 5'4" Females

City: Massapequa, New York

U.S. State: New Yorkers

Childhood & Early Life
Jessica Hahn was born on July 7, 1959, in Massapequa, New York, to middle class parents, as one among four children in the family. Her father worked in the New York Police Department while her mother was a homemaker. Jessica’s parents were highly religious and this led Jessica to become more inclined towards Christianity as well.
She, however, had quite a difficult childhood. She was chubby as a teenager and due to that she was bullied by her classmates in school. However, she began working on her physique as she grew up and by the time she graduated high school, she had attained a fit body.
She was raised by devout parents who tried hard to put their children in the same path of spirituality as they themselves believed in. Jessica regularly attended masses and also sang songs in nearby churches. However, despite being religious, Jessica’s life was not very satisfying. She had no friends and her family was the only refuge for her while growing up in New York.
She pursued her high school graduation from Massapequa High School and while in school, she aspired to become a nurse or a psychiatrist. However, she was not passionate about her academics and wanted to get out of school as fast as she could. While other students spent their summer holidays working, she spent that time sitting at her house or doing odd jobs at the nearby churches.
Her discontentment with her life had her leaving the Catholic Church behind after she attended a revival meeting of Full Gospel Tabernacle at the age of 14. She found extreme peace there and decided to join the church, which was an interdenominational church located near her house. In 1977, following her graduation from high school, she began working full time at the church.
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The Jim Bakker Scandal
She worked for the church for the next decade. Eventually, she was asked to work for the PTL ministry, which was run by the famous televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye.
In December 1980, she received a call from John Fletcher, whom she knew back when she worked at the Long Island Church. John was also a friend of Jim Bakker and also appeared on the hour long Christian talk show with him. John invited Jessica to Florida. John said that she would work as a church secretary and will help babysit Jim’s children.
On December 6, Jessica and Jim met in a hotel room in Florida at a Clearwater beach hotel. However, there are various versions of what happened inside the hotel that day. John Fletcher said that Jessica was taken to Florida because Jim wanted to make his wife jealous and that Jessica and Jim had consensual sex in the hotel room that day. While Jessica said that she was drugged and was taken advantage of as she was a big fan of Jim and she trusted him.
Jessica remained silent about it as according to her, she did not want to risk her job with the church, which had become a big part of her life in the past few years. She also feared that people will judge the church in a bad light if the incident ever came out in the open.
Overtime, Jessica realized that she was only being used a showpiece and a ‘pawn’. She called a news reporter in 1984 and told him about how she was drugged and raped by Jim in a hotel on December 6, 1980. An investigation was begun by the reporter Charles Shepard, and several financial frauds were brought out in the open. The report won a Pulitzer Prize.
In 1987, Jim resigned from PTL and Jessica came into limelight around the same time owing to large scale investigations against Jim Bakker and his organization. Additionally, he was accused of drugging and raping Jessica. Jessica also accused John Fletcher of raping her.
Jessica was given $279,000 to remain silent on the incident from PTL’s funds. It was also discovered that Jim made all the financial decisions within the organization and kept two books, to hide the accounting irregularities. This led to the end of the PTL network. However, Jim later mentioned in his book titled ‘I Was Wrong’, that the sexual encounter with Jessica was consensual.
Other Ventures
Soon after the Jim Bakker incident came to light, Jessica’s popularity shot up. However, in her personal life, she was distressed. She claimed that she was on the brink of suicide. However, she received a call from Playboy shortly after, to appear in the magazine. She appeared nude on the November and December 1987 Playboy editions. Her interviews accompanied the nude pictures and that created quite a stir.
In August 1988, she joined the Morning Show of the Phoenix Radio Station. However, she was let go from the radio station a few months later due to undisclosed reasons.
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Around the same time, in the late 1980s, she also appeared on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson’ and ‘Saturday Night Live’, where parodies of her character were made.
In the late 1980s, she appeared on short videos titled ‘Nuclear Assault: Critical Mass’ and ‘Sam Kinison: Wild Thing’.
In the early 1990s, she made her fully fledged television debut appearing on a single episode of the series titled ‘Married...with Children’, wherein she played Ricki. She followed it with the role of a reporter on two episodes of the series titled ‘Dream On’.
In 1992, after starring in a guest role in the series titled ‘Blossom’, she made her film debut with a lead role in the comedy film titled ‘High Heels on a Lady’. The film remained largely unknown. Later that year, she further appeared playing the lead role in the comedy film titled ‘Bikini Summer II’. The film was largely penned by the critics and was a major box office debacle.
In 1995, she appeared playing the host of a television show in the television film titled ‘Amanda & the Alien’ and later that year she appeared on four episodes as Miss Taylor, in the series titled ‘Unhappily Ever After’. In the next year, she appeared playing Esther in another TV film titled ‘Hollywood: The Movie’.
Additionally, she has regularly appeared on the popular radio show ‘The Howard Stern Show’.
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Family & Personal Life
Jessica Hahn was engaged to a writer/producer Ron Leavitt, who passed away in 2008 due to lung cancer. She later got married to a stuntman named Frank Lloyd. She kept her marriage a secret and only disclosed it in 2017.
Despite all the ups and down in her life, she still is an ardent Christian. She was also a huge supporter of former president Donald Trump and even tried to defend him on sexual misdemeanour charges against him.
Despite her self-confessed faith towards Christianity, she faced a lot of criticism owing to her extravagant lifestyle. To which she says that as a child of God, she deserves nice things if she works hard for them.

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Article Title
- Jessica Hahn Biography
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- Editors, TheFamousPeople.com
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URL
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/jessica-hahn-11337.php

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