According to his family, Phil Robertson, the father of the Duck Dynasty, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
In the most recent installment of their podcast, Unashamed with The Robertson Family, Robertson’s family revealed the news on Friday.
Phil’s son, Jase Roberts, said in the episode, “Phil’s Diagnosis,” that the dementia was in its “early stages.
He further said that the family had been told by the physicians that his father also had a blood condition.
Jase claims that the 78-year-old reality star’s health has been especially bad because of the blood disorder, and that things have been getting worse lately.
Al said that while Phil had had the blood problem for a while, it had suddenly grown worse. Jase said that Phil was unable to participate in Friday’s podcast because of his bad health.
His son said, “He keeps saying, I’m gonna get back to the podcast.” “But then I think, “Well, Phil, you can barely walk around without crying out in pain.” ‘
‘You know, your memory is not what it once was,’ he said to his father. Phil’s response, Jase joked, was, ‘Tell me about it.’
One of Phil’s problems was that, despite eating “pretty good,” he was apparently losing weight at an alarming pace. Jase said, “He just can’t do much, he keeps losing weight, and he just can’t retain it.”
Al Robertson, Phil’s brother and co-host, noted that their father still has “good days” in between the “bad days” in case Jase’s update made Phil’s health seem too dire.
Al likened Phil’s battles with Alzheimer’s to those of former President Ronald Reagan, whose accomplishments and political philosophies had motivated him.
The same illness afflicted Reagan, who memorably informed the American people of his diagnosis in a letter in 1994.
When he went to Reagan’s presidential library in California, Al recalled how affected he was to see the letter in person.
Although Phil hadn’t said anything comparable about his condition, he thought his father was at a similar stage of dementia progression.
Jase made an interesting aside as the episode came to a conclusion, recalling Phil’s time as a preacher and sharing a tale about how his father’s.
Condemnation of transgender or gender nonconforming persons inspired him. He used this as an example of how scathing the patriarch used to be.
In the late 1960s, Phil became well-known as a quarterback at Louisiana Tech, but he chose to pursue a career in business rather than professional football.
Based on a well-liked duck call product that Robertson created, he established Duck Commander, a hunting and outdoor sports products firm, in 1972.
Several hunting-themed TV programs dating back to the 1980s were created as a result of his business’s renown,
But his family’s appearances on the A&E reality series Duck Dynasty in 2012 brought them a whole new level of attention.
Robertson’s comments to GQ in 2014, in which he called homosexuality “sinful” and likened it to adultery and bestiality, resulted in a short suspension from the show.
Although A&E denounced his comments, they finally gave up when he offered a partial apology. After eleven seasons, Duck Dynasty came to an end in 2017.
