Longtime Preacher Jimmy Swaggart's Family Shared an Updated About His Health

You might think you know everything about televangelist preachers thanks to HBO Max's The Righteous Gemstones, but real life is a lot less glamorous when it comes to those who preach on television for a living. And after longtime preacher Jimmy Swaggart was hospitalized, many wondered what happened to him and if the 90-year-old preacher had underlying health issues.

A televangelist, according to Merriam-Webster, is someone who regularly preaches during televised sermons as opposed to simply preaching to a congregation in a standard church without cameras and any other fanfare. In general, an evangelist is someone who preaches their gospel. Although televangelists were more well-known in the '80s and '90s, likely thanks to a lack of cable TV across the board, Jimmy has been preaching on television since 1971.

According to The Advocate, Jimmy was hospitalized on June 15, 2025, after he went into cardiac arrest. The outlet reported that the longtime pastor's heart stopped beating in his home in Baton Rouge, La. Rev. Donnie Swaggart, Jimmy's son, who followed in his father's footsteps as a preacher himself, shared during a sermon that evening that he and his brother performed chest compressions on Jimmy until paramedics arrived.

"I've never seen so many people arrive at one time, and I want to thank them," Donnie said in a sermon that was shared on Jimmy's Instagram. "They were able to get a heartbeat back. Right now he is in ICU and without a miracle, his time will be short. But we believe God. We're not giving up. We already told the doctors we don't wanna hear anything from them. We will make decisions in our own time."

Prior to that, Donnie shared a post on his own Instagram to invite people to join them at the Swaggart Family Worship Center for a "special time of prayer" in the evening. Following the televised sermon led by Donnie, the church did not release any further statements about Jimmy's health or progress.

According to the official website for Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, Jimmy and his wife, Frances Swaggart, got married when they were just teenagers. Although Frances is not a preacher, she does host the show Frances and Friends on the family's Sonlife Broadcasting Network.

Unlike some of the other family members who are part of the business, Frances isn't a singer, though she has apparently encouraged her husband for decades, and even before they started their ministry. In October 2024, Jimmy shared an Instagram post about their wedding anniversary and wrote a lengthy caption about his wife of, at that time, 72 years.

"Hands down, other than the Lord Jesus Christ, she is above and beyond the best thing that's ever happened to me, and a thousand times over," he wrote in the caption. "It seems just a short time ago that she said, "I do," and now we have great-grandchildren. What little we have been able to accomplish for the Lord Jesus Christ, I could not have done it at all without her."