“Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson’s health is rapidly declining, according to a recent update from his son Jase Robertson, who hosts the podcast, “Unashamed with the Robertson Family.”
“[I’ll] tell you the truth,” Jase Robertson said, “it hasn’t been good.”
The focus, the younger Robertson explained, is on making sure he’s comfortable and providing the best possible care to the 78-year-old Phil Robertson, who, according his son Willie Robertson, was diagnosed in December with a blood disorder, a fractured vertebrae, and signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
Jase Robertson said in a previous interview doctors likened the blood disorder to a form of cancer.
As Phil Robertson’s decline has continued, Jase Robertson said he’s becoming increasingly transparent with family and friends about his father’s health.
“I’m just giving the blunt truth,” he said. “I’ll say, ‘Not good.’ We’re making them comfortable and we’re doing the best we can. So I think that’s just what you do.”
Willie Robertson, for his part, explained their father has struggled to maintain a healthy appetite, explaining he often cooks hamburgers and crawfish in hopes of cajoling his dad into eating.
Their mother, Kay Robertson, is beginning to show signs of recovery after a recent hospitalization from an infection stemming from a fall. Her case, of course, put additional stress on the Robertson family.
Initially, they believed the family matriarch might not recover. Jase Robertson admitted, “We were kinda dealing with the fact that maybe this is it.” But her health is now improving.
“For my mom, it’s been a lot better this past week, because she was really not doing good,” Jase Robertson said on the podcast. “She got an infection from a fall, from a cut that had happened earlier. … She’s still in the hospital, but [now it’s] more rehab, physically, and trying to get her to eat.”
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Phil Robertson has been a cultural phenom since 2012, when he made his debut as a key star of the A&E reality TV series, “Duck Dynasty,” following the Robertson family. The elder Robertson has a reputation for boldly sharing the Gospel.
For example, when he first met President Donald Trump, Phil Robertson shared the Gospel with him, scrawling details of his faith down on a sheet of paper.
Recalling the interaction to Christian podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey, Phil Robertson said, “When I first met Donald Trump … I wrote this on a piece of paper and I said, ‘Whatever happens’ — he was running for office at this time — I saw him a couple of times after that, but, while he was running for office, I said, ‘Whatever happens, Trump, don’t miss this.'”
He continued, “I said, ‘There’s a cross. Jesus died on the cross.’ I said, ‘For the sins of the world.’ I said, ‘You do have sins, don’t you?'”
“What did he say?” asked Stuckey.
“He said, ‘A lot of them,'” Phil Robertson remembered. “I said, ‘Me too.’ I said, ‘They put Him in a tomb.’ I said, ‘Trump whatever happens’ — I said, ‘We’re the same age. We [are the] identical age and we don’t have that long — we’re in our 70s.’ I said, ‘Trump, we are going to die and we are going to be six feet under and so am I.’ He said, ‘No doubt about it.’ I said, ‘[Jesus] was resurrected from the dead. … You can live beyond the grave. It’s the greatest thing that ever happened for the human race. [To] remove all your sins and raise you from the dead. We are all waiting on the return.'”
Phil Robertson said he told Trump, in the lead-up to his first presidency, he was going to vote for the Republican candidate. He told Trump, “You need to think seriously about that and give your life to Jesus, because it’s bigger than the presidency. … You can have immortality.”
Please continue to pray for the Robertson family.
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