(CP) “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson is within the “early stages” of Alzheimer’s and battling one other blood-related disease that’s “causing problems along with his entire body,” his family has revealed, sparking an outpouring of support on social media.
Last week, Robertson’s son, Jase, revealed the state of his 78-year-old father’s health on an episode of the “Unashamed with the Robertson Family” podcast.
“Phil’s not doing well. We were attempting to work out the diagnosis, but in response to the doctors, they’re sure that he has some kind of blood disease causing every kind of problems,” Jase said.
He added, “And he has early stages of Alzheimer’s. So, should you put those things together, he’s just not doing well. … We’ve got a team of doctors, after which we’ve got one other set of doctors who’re taking a look at all of the tests, and so they’re all in agreement that there is no curing what he has.”
Despite his diagnosis, Jase said his father is hoping to return to hosting the podcast: “I’m like, ‘Well Phil, you may barely walk around without crying out in pain, and your memory shouldn’t be what it once was,'” said Jase. “He’s like, ‘Tell me about it.'”
Following the news, social media was flooded with messages of support for the Robertson patriarch.
On X, former Gov. of Louisiana Bobby Jindal wrote, “Praying for (Phil Robertson) and his family,” while Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham wrote, “Would you join me in praying for Phil Robertson, his wife Miss Kay, and their family? Phil is having serious health issues. I’ve appreciated Phil’s daring faith in Jesus Christ and the best way he points to God’s Word.”
Robertson and his family became household names through the hit A&E reality show “Duck Dynasty,” which ran from 2012 to 2017. The show chronicled the lives of the Robertsons and their business, Duck Commander, while highlighting the family’s faith and conservative values.
In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Phil Robertson reflected on how, in 2013, he was suspended from “Duck Dynasty” over his candid comments about homosexuality and religion in a GQ profile. He was swiftly condemned as a bigot by LGBT activist groups, including The Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD.
“Five or six years ago, a man got here up and asked me, did I think homosexual behavior was a sin,” Robertson told CP. “I quoted 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: ‘Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the thieves, the greedy drunks, they will not inherit the Kingdom of God,'” Robertson said, citing [Paul’s letter] to the church at Corinth. “‘But you have been washed, you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus,'” he added.
“I just simply quoted him a verse, a Bible verse, where God stated what it’s,” he added. “So it took him two weeks to work out all I did was quote a Bible verse. He asked me an issue … and I just quoted [the Bible]. And once I quoted it, he took it and ran with it, because he thought I used to be just blowing smoke just off the highest of my head.”
Though backlash from the secular media was swift, the daddy, grandfather and great-grandfather noted that consequently of his boldness, “quite a lot of good got here forth.”
“We converted far more after that,” he said. “See what I’m saying? God works in mysterious ways.”
Robertson has authored several books, including Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy because the Duck Commander and The Theft of America’s Soul, which delve into his personal story, faith and worldview. In 2022, he released Uncanceled: Finding Meaning and Peace in a Culture of Accusations, Shame, and Condemnation.
The film “The Blind,” released in 2023, delved into the Duck Commander’s backstory and Phil’s struggles with addiction and anger prior to his conversion to Christianity.
Phil’s son, Willie, told CP the family’s lives would look drastically different if it weren’t for an Arkansas pastor, who, within the Seventies, drove across state lines to share the Gospel along with his father.
“After we got here out with ‘The Blind’ last 12 months about Phil and Kay’s life, I believed, ‘What if that hadn’t happened? What if that guy didn’t go up there and preach the Gospel out of fear?” Willie Robertson reflected.
“Dad had not develop into a Christian. He’d already kicked us out, so we knew where it was headed. It was heading towards divorce needless to say, split up family. When you are taking that out of the combo, there would have been no Duck Commander, there would have been no company, there would have been no ‘Duck Dynasty.’ I do not even know if I could be a believer today.”
“Every day of my life, someone has been impacted by what happened 50 years ago,” he continued. “Because of what was capable of come out of that, if you start eager about the tv show that reached a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of individuals, still does every single day … all of the books, the films, the podcast, all of the things which have pointed people in some option to the Gospel, to the sunshine, I can trace all that back.”
Korie Robetson, who’s married to Willie, told CP the family desired to portray the raw and broken parts of their story to underscore God’s unwavering faithfulness.
“Phil said, from day one, ‘If it impacts one person, if one person changes their life and offers their life to Jesus, due to my story, due to darkest parts of my story, I’ll do it. It’ll be value it.’ One of the best rewards has just been to read the comments and skim the emails which have are available in which have told us the life change that has happened in people’s lives after seeing this film.”
She said the family has heard countless stories of those that’ve been baptized, delivered from addiction or seen their marriages healed after watching the movie. Some of the baptisms, she said, have happened right in Phil’s backyard.
“I wish we knew what number of hundreds of individuals have been baptized in that river right behind Phil and Kay’s house, because Phil likes to baptize people and has done it right there in his backyard for years and years and years,” she said.
“People would head straight to the church or head straight to the body of water right after seeing the movie; one group had like 27 baptisms, and right after the film, everyone just sort of continued and went somewhere worshiped.”
“One woman said her husband had been an alcoholic for 17 years, he never goes to the films together with her. She convinced him to come back to the movie together with her because he loved Phil and our show. He reached over and held her hand for the primary time in years while they were watching the movie. I read that and just bawled.”
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