Left: Phil Robertson Right: Daughter Phyllis
In a new episode of the family’s “Unashamed with Phil Robertson” podcast, the Robertson patriarch revealed he just found out he fathered a daughter during an affair in the ’70s.
Phil’s son’s Al and Jase both explain how they received letters from a 45-year-old woman named Phyliss, claiming to be their sister.
“I did a quick glance at it, there was some DNA material in there. I immediately thought it was a like a lot of letters we get,” explained Al, saying they often got mail from people claiming to be distant relatives.
The conversation starts around the 28:20 mark:
“So basically, it was from a woman who said that by a DNA search, she thinks that dad might be her dad,” he continued. “I’m like, oh whoa … there might be something to this. Then I looked at the date of her birthday and I thought about when dad became a Christian and thought, he was already a Christian. We had to backup nine months. There was a clear dividing line for dad. There was everything up til you became a Christian. A few days went by and then the more I read it the more I thought, this is something we need to figure out.”
The brother’s didn’t immediately bring up the letters to their parents, instead, they tried to see if they could figure out the truth on their own.
“I started thinking, there’s a 45-year-old woman out there who doesn’t know who her dad is, and she’s looking,” said Al. “And I thought, even if it’s not dad, she needs to know it’s not dad.”
After some digging around, there was enough evidence to point towards the reality of the woman’s claims. So Al went to his parents.
“Of course dad didn’t remember anything,” he said. “It was interesting because mom remembered a lot more than you did. You were drunk the whole time and not in your own head, but mom wasn’t.”
Phil agreed to a DNA test and it was a “99.99% match.”
“I said, bring her on down!” exclaimed Phil. “Our audience will meet my daughter, we’ve already met her. It’s a pretty cool explanation of redemption, reconciliation, love. As it turns out, 45 years, you have a daughter that you don’t know about, and she has a father she doesn’t know about. 45 years that doesn’t sound like very long but you say, that’s a while. So finally, after all those years, we come together.”
Phil’s wife has always thought that something like this could happen, often telling Phil that he probably has another son out in the world. In this case, he had a daughter. Phil does mention that he has always wanted a daughter and couldn’t be happier at finding out he has one.
Phil & Kay