What's your house like?
I have just a simple little two-story Southern home on a cul de sac, but inside, it's really fun. It looks like television sets everywhere, because I have two life-size dolls that are wearing my clothes that are sitting in the dining room drinking tea. I have them set up like a little tea party. They used to be on the bed, but I took them off because they used to scare everybody when they walked in the bedroom. So now they're sipping tea in the dining room.
So you eat your meals next to them?
No, I don't eat my meals there. I never go in the dining room. That's why they're sitting there. I eat in the kitchen. [Laughs]
So do you collect anything?
Oh my gosh, I have this horrible thing for purses. And I used to collect baby dolls. I just love 'em. I just love to look at 'em.
You waited for a while to have kids.
Nine years, because Jim wouldn't let me have any kids. He didn't want children because he was too interested in building a ministry and all. I was such a part of that that he felt that children didn't belong in our lives. Me, I had the heart of a mom and I would beg God -- beg -- for a baby. And then finally after eight years, I went to the doctor to make sure I was all right. I told Jim, I gotta have a baby. So he let me. Then after the first one, he wanted 10. Yeah, forget that. It took me two days of screaming to get the first one here. I had the second one Cesarean section and then it was all over. You go to sleep and wake up and there it is.
Well, you have the scar to show for it.
You know, I've got a 9-inch scar from my cancer surgery and I thought, wouldn't it be fun to go to a tattoo artist and have him tattoo a zipper? Wouldn't that be fun? I think that would be so funny. Or like a rose stem or something?
Why not? As you like to say, if life gives you lemons ...
Make some lemonade.
If life gives you a scar ...
Make a zipper.
What are your days like now?
It goes between cleaning the house and scrubbing toilets and picking up wee-wee from the puppies. I use more Clorox Cleanup than any human being in the world with those two little puppies of mine, Muffin and Tuppins. I also make cigar-box purses, as a hobby.
What's a cigar-box purse?
Oh man, they are darling. I go to the cigar store and get empty cigar boxes. I drill holes in them, put a handle on them and they've already got the paraphernalia on them to close them. I use my cigar-box purses all the time.
So does it cut down on your purse shopping?
No.
How did I know you were going to say that?
[Laughs]
So you have a reality TV project coming up?
Yeah, I do.
And what's that about?
They lock you in a house for -- oh, oops! It's supposed to be a surprise.
So it's not like an Anna Nicole thing where the camera follows you around.
No, they wanted to. I was approached to do a reality series but I said my life is too boring. How many times can you clean up puppy wee-wee and commodes and make beds and all that?
Do you ever feel like you can't leave the house without makeup? Is it a burden, carrying your image around?
Well, I never have left the house without my makeup, but see, I do my makeup for me. I don't do it for other people, so that's no burden. The first thing I do in the morning is put my makeup on. It just takes me five or 10 minutes. I just put it on and go do my thing. So even if I don't go out of the house I put my makeup on.
If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one makeup item with you, what would it be?
Eyeliner. You can do without the eyelashes, you can do without the mascara, but you can't do without the eyeliner.
So what else do you have coming up?
I have a variety show for television that I think will be lots of fun. It's going to be like "Tammy's House Party" which I used to do at PTL. We're gonna syndicate it if we can.
Is it Christian or secular?
It's going to be both, a good mixture.
What kind of projects have you been approached with that you've turned down?
I won't do anything with any pornography connected to it. I won't do Comedy Central. I won't do any shows where I have to pretend to be mean. I will only be real. I've turned down many, many shows. In fact, I've turned down almost a show a week.
When you say real, you mean be you?
No, I don't mind acting, but I'm not going to act the part of somebody mean or I'm not going to go on a reality show that is rigged.
Honesty sounds like it's really important to you.
Honesty to me is the most important thing in life because I think if you lose honesty you've lost everything.
So it's ironic that one of the things that you and Jim Bakker were being accused of was dishonesty.
Yes, it is ironic. Neither one of us can believe it. And the people that know us can't believe it.
So there was no truth to any of the allegations?
No, there was no truth. The newspapers absolutely made up things. There was no money misuse. There was no misuse of finances.
Do you think you just got too big for your britches and so the world just wanted to bring you down?
I think the world just likes to build people up and then bring them down. I think that's human nature, which is really very sad. You build someone up and then you knock 'em down. Then you love to see them fall down. I think that's very sad.
Are you worried that if you get built up too much again the same thing can happen again?
I'll probably die before that. [Laughs]
About the writer
Amy Reiter is a senior writer for Salon.
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