Bishop T.D. Jakes, 67, is looking a lot leaner these days months after experiencing a serious health incident last year.
Fans took notice of the Potter’s House megachurch founder’s shockingly slimmer appearance in a video Jakes shared on his Instagram page to promote the upcoming Good Soil Forum set to take place in Dallas.
The West Virginia native told his 6 million Instagram followers that he was tapped as a featured speaker for the entrepreneurship event. In addition, the Good Soil lineup from June 12-14 features billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Slutty Vegan owner “Pinky” Cole Hayes, Fear of God creative director Jerry Lorenzo, and more.
While Jakes’ attempt was to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to attend the Good Soil Forum, many social media users were fixated on his dramatic weight loss.
“Dang, when did you lose all that weight?” someone in the Instagram comment section wondered about Jakes’ body transformation. One reply read, “When he got sick. He has lost a lot of weight. He looks good.”
In November, while onstage at The Potter’s House in Dallas, Jakes suffered a medical emergency and appeared to experience seizure-like shakes as he was preaching to his congregation.
Church members quickly rushed to the stage to tend to Jakes. Following the livestreamed incident, the “Woman Thou Art Loosed” movie cast member was transported to a hospital.
Representatives of the church released a statement at the time saying the pastor had “experienced a slight health incident and received immediate medical attention following his powerful hour-long message.”
“Bishop Jakes is stable and under the care of medical professionals. The entire Potter’s House family is grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers, and support from the community,” the statement continued.
Amid public speculation, Jakes later said he’d had a life-threatening heart attack, which he discussed on camera during in an interview on the “Today” morning show in March.
“I didn’t really realize what was happening to me onstage until I got to the hospital in an ambulance and fussing that it happened onstage, by the way, because I didn’t want it to happen, and the doctor leaned over my ear and said, ‘You had a massive heart attack,'” Jakes recalled.
He added, “And the reason I didn’t realize it was because I had none of the symptoms that they say. No numbness, no sharp pain, no anything. I just kind of drifted off to sleep. I didn’t know what it was, but I almost died.”
In April Jakes announced he was stepping down as senior pastor of The Potter’s House and handing over his leadership duties to his daughter, Sarah Jakes Roberts, and her husband, Touré Roberts.
Even though Jakes is no longer responsible for pastoral duties at The Potter’s House, he has continued to produce weekly episodes of his “The Potter’s Touch” podcast.
The ex-host of the short-lived “T.D. Jakes Show” television talk show has also clearly focused on improving his health. Many of Jakes’ supporters have taken notice of his slimmed-down frame.
“Wow, Bishop, you look great!” one of Jakes’ fans commented on his Instagram account. A second astonished observer exclaimed, “Aight nah, Slim. You look great!”
Jakes previously opened up about his longtime weight loss struggles on the “T.D. Jakes Show,” which aired for two seasons on the Oprah Winfrey Network from 2016 to 2017.
“I don’t want to be one of those guys who says all this grandiose stuff about losing weight, and then by December bursting over the chair,” Jakes admitted on an October 2016-dated episode of the program.
“It’s an ongoing battle for me,” he explained. “But [I lose weight] the old-fashioned way. I’m doing exercise. I’m doing cardio three times a week. I’m lifting weights again like I did when I was younger. And then I’m eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, and mostly baked things and avoiding fried foods.”
