Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, 74, made a shocking confession on the May 28 episode of his podcast, Unashamed with Phil Robertson. He just discovered that he’s the father of a 45-year-old daughter after having an affair in the 1970s. Phil, who has been married to wife Kay Robertson, 72, since 1966, said on the podcast [WATCH the episode above] that a woman named Phyliss reached out to his sons, Al and Jase, in letters three months ago; she said that she believed she was their sister. At first, Al, 55, explained on the podcast, they didn’t believe her. The family apparently receives a lot of letters from fans pretending to be relatives, who actually just want money or an autograph. Plus, Phil had become a Christian in the early 1970s and he didn’t think his father would have an affair.
Al and Jase, 50, said they kept the letter a secret from their parents until they could figure out if her claim was legit. They enlisted the help of their podcast producers to see how they could get a DNA test done. “I started thinking, there’s a 45-year-old woman out there who doesn’t know who her dad is, and she’s looking,” Al said. “And I thought, even if it’s not dad, she needs to know it’s not dad.” One of the producers talked to Phyliss and told Al and Jase that she “was not out for anything. She’s a Christian.” The brothers decided to tell Phil and Kay about what they’d learned. Phil took a DNA test, and it came back a 99.9% match, the Louisiana duck hunter revealed on the podcast.
Al claimed that his father “didn’t remember anything” about the affair, but their mother did; he said that Phil, who revealed that he was an alcoholic in 2013, had been “drunk the whole time and not in your right head.” In the end, the family is happy about Phyliss finding them. “It’s a pretty cool explanation of redemption, reconciliation, love,” Phil said. “As it turns out, 45 years you have a daughter you don’t know about, and she has a father she doesn’t know about. Forty-five years doesn’t sound like very long, but you say, that’s a while. So finally, after all those years, we come together.” Phil and Kay have two other sons together: Willie, 48, and Jules, 42.