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Didn't see this plot twist coming!
By Nicole Pomarico — Written on May 29, 2020
Former Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson already has a pretty big family, and now, it sounds like it's getting even bigger.
This week, Robertson revealed that he actually has a secret daughter, and it's not that he has been keeping her a secret, either — he just found out that she exists himself.
Who Is Phil Robertson's secret daughter?
And what's actually going on here? This is what we know so far.
Robertson shared the big news on his Unashamed podcast.
According to sons Al and Jase, earlier this year, a woman reached out to both of them in letters, claiming to be their biological sister. In the letters, she said that she'd done a DNA test and it led back to Robertson being her father. At first, Al and Jase were tempted to brush it all off, thinking that the woman wasn't being truthful but after looking into the situation further, they discovered that she was right.
“I started thinking, ‘There’s a 45-year-old woman out there who doesn’t know who her dad is, and she’s looking,' and I thought, ‘Even if it’s not Dad, she needs to know it’s not Dad,'" Al said on the podcast.
He has already taken a DNA test to prove paternity.
After discovering that the woman was the real deal, Al and Jase filled their father in on the situation and he took a paternity test that showed a 99.9% match — hard to ignore those kinds of numbers — and now, it sounds like the family has welcomed her with open arms.
“It’s a pretty cool explanation of redemption, reconciliation, love,” Robertson 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.”
His daughter was born after Robertson was married to wife Kay.
Robertson and wife Kay married in 1966, and his secret daughter was born almost 10 years later, making it impossible for Robertson to deny that he had cheated on his wife years ago. Though he didn't go into the details, his sons did say they were surprised, especially since the affair happened after Robertson committed himself to Christianity.
But who is Phil Robertson's secret daughter? Her name is Phyliss.
All the family revealed about the woman is that she is 45 years old and her name is Phyliss. Her full identity (including her last name) is unknown at this point, so it's hard to say much about who she is or what she does. Fortunately, it sounds like the Robertsons like her — or what they know about her so far, at least.
He has addressed the situation on Instagram.
This week, Robertson took to Instagram to share the news and a clip from his podcast.
"After 45 years, I met the daughter I never knew I had," he wrote, adding, "Al, Jase, Willie, Jep and I talked a lot about grace, love, redemption, and how we came to know my daughter — their sister. I hope you'll watch on my YouTube channel."
The family has met her and she will appear on the podcast soon.
Phyliss has already met the Robertsons, and the family promised that they'd introduce her to fans soon, though they didn't share when that might be.
"It was super-awesome," Robertson's son, Jep, said on the podcast. "It was like a dream come true."
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.