'Duck Dynasty': Sadie and Kyrie Robertson Reveal Where Family Stands With Phil's Secret Daughter
Phil Roberston found out in 2020 he had fathered a daughter from a past affair.
The patriarch of Duck Dynasty, Phil Roberston, discovered back in 2020 that he had fathered a daughter from an affair he had decades before. A DNA test confirmed he was a 99.9 percent match with Phyllis Thomas, a finding that led Phil's adult sons, Willie Robertson, Jep Robertson, Jase Robertson, and Alan Robertson, to accept her into their family. The Robertsons are a close-knit family, according to Sadie Robertson and Korie Robertson, Phil's granddaughter and daughter-in-law.
Phyllis and Sadie actually had lunch together recently, Sadie told E! News. "It was so good," she said. "I was just sitting with her like, 'This is so crazy! I'm talking to my aunt that I didn't know for so long, but now you're my dad's sister.'" The 26-year-old added, "It's such a beautiful thing that we get to have this relationship." Korie attributed the family's "amazing" dynamic to Phil's longtime wife and high school sweetheart Kay Robertson, who she described as very loving and accepting of Phyllis. "Whenever Phyllis came into the family and we found out," Korie told E! News. "Kay, from day one, just welcomed her with opened arms. She became part of the family very early on."
There have been various Robertson family gatherings since then and Phyllis has been invited to several of them, including Christmas dinner and a preview of The Blind, a film based mainly on Phil's early days growing up in Louisiana in the 1960s. The film, which is scheduled to be released in theaters on Sept. 28, also chronicles Phil's struggles with alcoholism, as well as the impact that his infidelity had on his marriage to Kay before he turned his life around in the end.
"It's even more so about Kay and her life story," Korie said regarding the film. "Kay had to choose to forgive him." According to the 49-year-old, "That choice to forgive is so powerful. Forgiveness is a powerful thing in any of our lives—no matter if it's as big as what Phil and Kay went through or smaller. In marriage and in life, you have to be able to forgive and move forward."
When Phyllis' paternity was revealed to Kay, Sadie believes it was Kay's selfless choice to forgive Phil decades ago that allowed her to be so welcoming to her. "If Grandma Kay hadn't forgiven Phil 40 years ago, there's no way she could've welcomed Phyllis with open arms like that," she explained. "She already knew everything that happened—she didn't know there was a daughter, but she knew how bad it was—and there was a lot of confessions, repentance, forgiveness." In addition, the reality star stated that forgiveness also allowed them to see that "something beautiful" came out of a difficult situation for the family. "If you're willing to walk through the hard things," she noted, "walk past that regret, you can open your heart to receive the beautiful things."