Phil Robertson is living with early onset Alzheimer’s disease, his son Jase Robertson revealed on the December 6, 2024 episode of the podcast “Unashamed with the Robertson Family.” Adding to his health woes, the controversial patriarch is also struggling with an as-of-yet undiagnosed blood disease.
“Uh, you know Phil’s not doing well,” Jase shared. “According to the doctors, they’re sure that he has some sort of blood disease that’s causing all kinds of problems, and he’s had this for a few years. It’s just gotten a lot worse. Yeah, it’s like accelerated, and it’s causing problems with his entire body, and, uh, and he has early stages of Alzheimer’s. So, if you put those things together, he’s just not doing well. He’s really struggling.”
Jase said his father is keen to get back on air, but he’s in too much pain to even walk, and he is also struggling with memory recall. He added that Phil has his good and bad days and that they’re working with the doctors to manage his pain and slow down the symptoms of his dementia. “[The doctors are] all in agreement that there’s no curing what he has right, and so uh, you know what do you do we we we’re trying to make him a little more comfortable,” he shared.
The news that Phil Robertson is living with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease is sure to send ripples through the reality TV world. Still, the Robertsons are used to creating a stir. The list of tragic details about the cast of “Duck Dynasty” is long and storied. The family’s history is peppered with stories of abuse, violence, sadness, and addiction. So, they’re no strangers to dealing with suffering and hardship.
Like many other celebs who are clear supporters of Donald Trump, the Robertsons have become pariahs in the liberal entertainment world. However, Phil Robertson became more hated in Hollywood than pretty much any other alt-right figure, thanks to his homophobic, transphobic, and Islamophobic hate speech (among other deeply offensive remarks).
Al Robertson compared his father’s Alzheimer’s story and preaching legacy with his hero Ronald Reagan’s. “Reagan wrote a letter when he got to the point with his Alzheimer’s that he knew he couldn’t, you know, function like he used to, yeah, so he was going to kind of step back from the public eye, and he reads that letter you know he was still well enough at the time which I was such a great gift to people that loved him,” he said. “I kind of feel that way with Dad. He didn’t write a letter, but his letter lives on in us, so the beauty of sharing the gospel and impacting people is that it never stops generation to generation.”
