Joni Lamb, who co-founded the Daystar Television Network in 1993 and led it as president after her first husband's death, died Thursday morning at the age of 65. The Texas-based Christian broadcaster confirmed her passing in a statement that described weeks of worsening health following a recent back injury.

Lamb's death closes a turbulent chapter for one of the largest Christian television networks in the world, a ministry that, in its final years under her leadership, faced allegations ranging from misuse of a corporate jet to a bitter family dispute over child abuse claims that split the Lamb family in public view.

Daystar said Lamb had been "dealing with serious health matters that she chose to face head on and in private." The network added that her condition deteriorated sharply in recent days despite the work of her medical team and widespread prayers. The statement did not specify the nature of her illness beyond noting it was compounded by the back injury.

A network built from scratch

Born in 1960 in Colleyville, Texas, Joni Lamb and her first husband, Marcus Lamb, launched Daystar three decades ago. The network grew from a regional broadcast operation into a global platform that, by Daystar's own account, reached viewers in nearly every country through satellite, cable, streaming, and digital channels, millions of homes worldwide.

Marcus Lamb died in November 2021. The couple had been married for 39 years. Joni Lamb assumed the presidency and continued to steer the ministry, eventually remarrying. Her second husband, Doug Weiss, survived her. She is also survived by three children from her first marriage.

The Daystar Board of Directors offered a brief tribute in the network's statement. "Joni's love for the Lord and for the people we serve shaped this ministry from the beginning," the board said. "We grieve her loss, and we are grateful for the legacy of faith she leaves behind."

Controversies shadowed final years

Lamb's tenure as sole leader of Daystar was anything but quiet. In 2024, the Trinity Foundation reported that Lamb had been using Daystar's ministry jet for personal travel over the preceding couple of years. The watchdog organization noted that while personal use of a ministry aircraft is legal, it requires payment of a special tax to the Internal Revenue Service known as a Standard Industry Fare Level. The report raised questions about whether proper tax obligations had been met.

That same year, a far more painful controversy erupted. Lamb's son, Jonathan Lamb, and his wife, Suzy, told The Roys Report that they believed a family member identified only as "Pete" had sexually abused their young daughter. Suzy Lamb claimed that when she reported the situation to Joni Lamb, she was told not to go to the police. She further implied that Joni Lamb may have told her granddaughter to stop talking about the alleged abuse.

Joni Lamb pushed back hard. She insisted that her granddaughter had accused a boy at her preschool of touching her, not "Pete." She later characterized her son's public accusations as a "smear campaign" aimed at wresting control of Daystar from her.

Daystar said it cooperated fully with law enforcement. The individual identified as "Pete" denied any wrongdoing and voluntarily submitted to an interview with the Colleyville Police Department. Police ultimately filed no charges. Daystar declared that the closed investigation confirmed "there was never any mishandling, as falsely argued by some on social media, on the part of Daystar and its leadership."

For families of faith, disputes like these carry a particular sting. Across the world, Christian communities face threats that demand unity, not fracture. The Lamb family's public split tested the credibility of a ministry that had long presented itself as a beacon of Christian solidarity.

Signs something was wrong

A couple of days before Lamb's death, former 700 Club Canada co-host Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson posted on X asking "Where's Joni?", noting that Lamb and her husband had mysteriously failed to appear at a birthday party for Paula White-Cain. The tweet hinted at concern within Lamb's circle even before Daystar made its announcement.

Christian author Max Davis, who had been working on a book with Lamb, offered condolences in a Facebook post. He acknowledged the weight of the past several years on her.

"I knew her as someone who wasn't perfect, but loved the Lord deeply, her family, and was passionate about the gospel. I am saddened, but I also know she is with the Lord. I pray this will reunite her family."

Davis also described "an unreal amount of grief and pressure on Joni, yet her faith never wavered." His words pointed to the toll that both personal loss and public controversy had exacted.

The prayer for family reunification is telling. It suggests that the rift between Joni Lamb and her son remained unresolved at the time of her death, a wound that no corporate statement or police investigation could close. In seasons of loss, many grieving Christian families find themselves searching for reconciliation alongside mourning.

Open questions for Daystar's future

Daystar's statement offered no details about succession. The network's leadership structure going forward, and whether the family dispute will resurface as a governance fight, remains unclear. Lamb built Daystar alongside her first husband, then held it together through his death, remarriage, and a series of damaging headlines. Whether anyone else can do the same is an open question.

The specific nature of Lamb's "serious health matters" was not disclosed. Daystar said she chose to face them privately, a decision the network appeared to respect even in announcing her death. No location for her passing was given.

There is also the matter of the ministry jet and the IRS tax question raised by the Trinity Foundation. That issue did not disappear with Lamb's death. If Daystar's board intends to honor her legacy, it will need to answer the accountability questions that dogged her final years, not bury them alongside her.

Tragedies within faith communities, whether sudden and violent or slow and private, test the institutions left behind. Daystar now faces that test.

Legacy and accountability

Joni Lamb's supporters will remember a woman who helped build a Christian media empire from nothing, who kept it running after her husband's death, and who maintained her faith under extraordinary personal pressure. That record is real.

But so is the record of allegations she never fully answered, about a granddaughter's welfare, about a family member's conduct, about the use of ministry resources. The Colleyville police closed one investigation. That does not close every question.

Christian broadcasting has long operated in a space where donor trust is the currency and transparency is the price of keeping it. Daystar's viewers, the people who funded the satellites, the streaming platforms, and the jets, deserve a full accounting from whoever leads next. Lamb's passing makes that harder to get, not easier.

Faith communities also know that tragedy near the church demands honest reckoning, not just reverent silence.

Joni Lamb built something large. Whether it was also built clean is a question her successors now own, and one her donors have every right to ask.