It is an emotional Mother’s Day for Joni Lamb’s family. The Dastar Television Network founder died on Thursday. She was 65. She had been suffering from serious health issues before sustaining a back injury that caused her health to deteriorate, the network said in a statement. However, a cause of death was not released.
Following her sudden death, Daystar TV reflected on the lasting impact she had on the ministry she helped build alongside her late husband, Marcus Lamb. “Joni’s love for the Lord and for the people we serve shaped this ministry from the beginning,” the network’s board of directors said in a statement.
Bombshell claim after Joni Lamb’s death
Lamb’s daughter-in-law, Suzy Lamb, in a social media post, claimed that her family wasn’t told about the television magnate’s death.
Suzy is married to Joni’s son Jonathan. “Thank you, we weren’t informed of anything. We were down the road, but weren’t given a call to say goodbye. We forgive them. Thank you for praying for Jonathan. They knew she was dying yesterday evening and they didn’t call Jonathan to come say goodbye,” she wrote on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
Sweet Mother’s Day message
On Sunday, Suzy wrote a message for her mother Tanuja Sagar. However, she did not mention Joni.
“Eternally thankful to God for my beautiful mom @tanujasagar7. Her love is pure & her passion is fire. All my life, she held me up when I couldn’t stand. Her love for God is why I am who I am today. She taught me everything & lives out every word. She’s tender beautiful & sweet but she is a lioness. Mommy’s girl for life ♥️ and Happy Mother’s Day to all the mama bears!” she tweeted.
Only last year, Joni Lamb had shared a photo of her mother on Mother’s Day. “Happy Mother’s Day to the best mom in the whole world. She is one of my greatest encouragers, so loving, fun, beautiful and loves God with all her heart. I talk to her every day and she always makes me laugh and smile. I love you, Mom. I honor you today and every day of my life,” she captioned the Instagram post in 2025.
How Joni Lamb helped build Daystar into a global network
Joni and Marcus Lamb launched their Christian broadcasting mission in the Dallas area in 1993 with a single television station. Over the following decades, the ministry expanded dramatically, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest Christian television networks.
Based in Bedford, Daystar now broadcasts in more than 200 countries and says it reaches 2.3 billion homes worldwide. The network aired programs from several high-profile evangelical figures, including Joel Osteen and TD Jakes.
Joni Lamb became one of the network’s most recognizable faces
Although she played a major executive role behind the scenes as president of the network, Joni also became widely known to viewers through her on-air appearances.
Five years after Daystar launched, she began hosting her signature women’s program, “Joni Table Talk,” where she regularly discussed faith, family and current issues affecting Christian households.
Later, after Marcus Lamb’s death in 2021, she co-hosted “Ministry Now” with her second husband, Doug Weiss, whom she married two years later.
Marcus Lamb’s affair confession became a defining public moment
One of the most talked-about moments in the network’s history came in 2010, when Marcus Lamb publicly admitted to having an affair years earlier.
Joni stood beside him during the televised confession, where Marcus also claimed three individuals had attempted to extort him for money in exchange for silence.
At the time, Joni openly discussed the emotional pain caused by the revelation.
“He’s worth fighting for,” she recalled the Holy Spirit telling her after learning about the affair.
The couple later said they had worked through the crisis privately and rebuilt their marriage.
“All you can do is tell the truth and take your pain and use it to try to help someone else,” Joni Lamb said.
