Tragic Details About The Cast Of Duck Dynasty

This article contains references to child abuse, sexual abuse, mental health issues, substance abuse, and eating disorders.

Renowned for beards that would put the hirsute members of ZZ Top to shame, ultra-conservative views on everything from abortions to the LGBTQ community, and, of course, their ability to shoot defenseless little aquatic birds, the "Duck Dynasty" family were one of the most tabloid-friendly to emerge from the reality television pool of the 2010s.

Hailing from the Louisiana city of West Monroe, the Robertson clan enjoyed a five-year run on A&E, drawing a record-breaking 11.8 million viewers for their fourth season opener in 2013. And thanks to their phenomenal success, several TV spinoffs, a big-screen movie, and a fortune estimated to be somewhere around the $400 million mark soon followed.

But things haven't always been hunky dory for parents Phil and Kay, their sons Jase, Jep, and Willie, and the various extended members of their famous family. From substance abuse battles and marriage problems to medical issues and near-death experiences, here's a look at 14 tragedies that have befallen the world's most famous duck hunters.

In 2015, Jep Robertson bravely revealed in his shared memoir "The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God: What Honesty and Pain Taught Us About Faith, Family, and Forgiveness" that he'd been molested as a child by an older classmate. And it was a secret that he'd kept from the rest of his "Duck Dynasty" family for several years, too.

Robertson, who co-authored the book with wife Jessica, explained that the traumatic experience happened on a school bus journey at the age of just six: "An older girl started sitting next to me. She seemed sweet at first ... I liked to sit in the back so she'd come sit with me. After a while the girl started doing strange things. She'd take my hands and push them under her shirt and tell me I was tickling her. Then she started making me pull down my pants. It was awkward. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew something wasn't right."

When asked by Entertainment Tonight why he didn't tell his family at the time, the reality star answered, "I think in the end I didn't want my mom and dad to think they did anything wrong, and they didn't." Robertson also said that he'd attempted to push the incident so deep into the back of his mind that, for a while, he ended up forgetting about it.

In one of many shocking revelations made in the 2014 book "The Women of Duck Commander: Surprising Insights from the Women Behind the Beards About What Makes This Family Work," Lisa Robertson opened up about the sexual abuse she suffered from the age of seven. And a drug-addicted extended member of her family was the man responsible.

Lisa, who's married to Alan Robertson, wrote, "Unfortunately, that person lived with my grandparents, so I had to see him often. Because I spent so much time at my grandparents' house, I was easy prey for him. My earliest memory of being molested was at the age of seven when he started to do things to me, things that made me feel bad and dirty."

Sadly, Lisa continued to be molested until she was in her teens, and she didn't tell her mom and dad until becoming a parent herself. But the reality TV star now hopes that by discussing the issue in public, she can help others: "I want all abuse survivors to know they have hope. They can have hope for complete healing, hope for great relationships, and hope for a wonderful life, free from the lingering effects of the trauma they have suffered."

In their revealing shared memoir "The Good, The Bad, And the Grace of God," Jep and Jessica Robertson disclosed that their marriage very nearly broke down. And the former's habit of watching online porn was to blame.

In an interview with Fox News, Jessica explained that she very nearly filed for divorce after discovering her husband's addiction: "As a woman, once again, I felt like, 'I'm not worthy to be loved, I'm not enough for you.' Those insecurities come back from even your childhood and teen years. As a woman that's how I felt. I felt very disrespected and it was a very hard time in our marriage."

Thankfully, the pair managed to overcome this major obstacle due to a combination of their faith and therapy sessions. When asked why they decided to open up about such a personal subject, Jep answered, "Not a lot of men talk about it and it happens quite often. We need to be able to come out and talk about it so it won't happen again and for others who have gone through it, to be open and talk about it so they can move forward with their lives."

"Duck Dynasty" matriarch Kay Robertson is renowned for her love of dogs. But one of her canine friends left her needing medical attention when it took a chunk of her lip off during a middle-of-the-night accident.

While appearing on the podcast "Unashamed," husband Phil Robertson revealed that Kay was bitten by their pet Bobo after she attempted to give him a goodnight kiss. "I said, 'Move that rag a minute,'" the reality TV star stated about the moment he was woken up by his blood-stained wife. "She takes the rag off her face, and I'm looking at her top lip, [it] was split in two, about a quarter of an inch. That's a big cut. Her bottom lip, over on the right side, there was just a chunk gone. Bleeding profusely is an understatement."

Kay apparently believed that Bobo was fully awake when she tried to give him some affection. But the dog, who was in the middle of a nap, got so startled that he instinctively lunged toward her. "I know my dad well," son Jase Robertson chimed in. "I thought, 'If my dad drove my mom to the hospital, this is bad.' This is the same guy who, if you don't have a body part detached or you're not bleeding profusely, he's like, 'Oh, you're alright.”' Luckily, after medics stitched up her lip, Kay made a full recovery.

Si Robertson has become a staunch advocate for veterans receiving better post-war care. And it's an issue close to his heart. While promoting his 2018 memoir "Si-Renity," the "Duck Dynasty" star revealed that his son Scott Robertson had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his eight tours in Iraq.

"I hadn't thought about it 'til he had one of those episodes one day," Si explained to Fox News. "His wife called me, and I went over to help her because he was out of it. And afterward we got to talking and he said, 'Dad, you've got to understand, I've got three years of that in my mind.'"

Si, a Vietnam veteran himself, also disclosed in his first book, "Si-cology 1: Tales and Wisdom from Duck Dynasty's Favorite Uncle," that Scott had struggled with several other issues while growing up. He was left brain-damaged after suffering a problem with his liver shortly after birth, and from the age of five, he started experiencing suicidal thoughts. Si wrote, "His behavior was really erratic as a child. When Scott would get tired, he would throw his arms out and fall backward."

Jessica and Jep Robertson certainly didn't appear to hold anything back in their joint memoir, "The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God." While the latter discussed his porn addiction and being molested as a child, the former also revealed that she once suffered from an eating disorder.

"I think a lot of girls struggle with that," Jessica said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "I wouldn't eat anything with fat in it. I would go as far as getting powdered skim milk because it had fat in it." But in the book itself, the reality TV star explained that the situation was a little more extreme.

"I started drastically cutting back on calories and working out harder and harder," Jessica wrote. "I used a calculator to track the calories I ate and sometimes made a meal out of just a few marshmallows or a bowl of low calorie cereal." This concerning behavior began in her teens when she first met her youth pastor, an older man responsible for another traumatic chapter in her life.

Willie Robertson and his family were left shaken in 2020 when their homes were targeted in a drive-by shooting. According to the "Duck Dynasty" star, approximately ten shots were fired at his estate in West Monroe, with one piercing the bedroom window of the property where son John Luke Robertson resides with his other half and their young child.

Luckily, no one was hurt in the incident, and shortly after, Daniel King Jr. was arrested and charged with one criminal neglect of family count and another of aggravated assault by drive-by shooting. But the Robertsons' ordeal didn't end there. Remarkably, the man who'd allegedly sprayed bullets at their residence then sued them for defamation.

Yes, King Jr., who'd also reportedly struck another home during the shooting, argued (via Fox News) that the Robertsons' statements about the crime were "calculated, false, and ultimately defamatory." The Louisiana native claimed that, as a result, his reputation had been diminished, and so he sought damages from both the "Duck Dynasty" clan and the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office.

The "Duck Dynasty" clan has never been afraid to talk about the times when patriarch Phil Robertson was anything but a clean-living, God-fearing member of society. If you've seen "The Blind," the faith-based film that draws upon his real life, for example, then you'll already know he once threw his wife and young kids out of their shared home during one particularly drunken session.

In an interview with Christian Headlines, Alan Robertson confirmed that this certainly wasn't a case of artistic license: "They really nailed the key moment scene when he kicked us out. It was raining, we were in our pajamas, we were scared, and Mom was crying. And so it was just, you know, this huge emotional moment."

Alan, who has also had to deal with several substance abuse issues of his own, also spoke (via the Christian Post) about his dad's troubles while the pair were preaching at a Saddleback Church meeting in 2013: "My father unfortunately fell in love with alcohol and he began running with a group of people that took our lives as a young family down a bad road. For the first 10 years of my life, for my brothers and me, it was very difficult."

Brighton Robertson, who is married to "Duck Dynasty" star Reed Robertson, was left grief-stricken in 2023 when she lost both a niece and a nephew in a fatal car crash. Bryn and Harrison Thompson, aged nine and seven, respectively, were killed during a trip to their school in Rayville, Louisiana, which also left their sibling Hayes and mom Kasey needing medical attention.

The tragedy happened when a semi-truck, complete with the grain trailer it was towing, rear-ended the family's SUV and caused it to burst into flames. Brighton's mother-in-law, Missy Robertson, soon took to Instagram to pay her respects. Alongside several photos of Bryn and Harrison, she wrote, "Losing one child in an unexpected tragedy is overwhelming. Losing two at the same time is unimaginable."

The reality TV regular also revealed how the family's religious beliefs played a vital part in the grieving process: "I saw their mama's faith in the Lord through the entire week. I heard her say, 'God has been so good to us. He is so so good.' I also saw my children in their own grief rush to the aide of Brighton's brother and sister-in-law and use every oz of strength to help them get through these days."

In 2001, Jessica Robertson walked down the aisle with the baby of the "Duck Dynasty" family. But Jep Robertson wasn't the first man that she'd exchanged vows with. Yes, the reality star had previously been married to her youth pastor.

In her shared memoir, "The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God," Jessica revealed how she'd essentially been groomed by her first husband, with the unnamed man in question disclosing that he had romantic feelings for her as she approached her high school senior year. The A&E favorite admitted to feeling "unsure and scared" at the time, but was actively encouraged to pursue the situation: "I also started to feel that I should be in love with him even though I wasn't in love with him. Everyone said I was the luckiest girl in the world to have snagged him."

Jessica ended up marrying the pastor at the age of just 18, a development she's so far kept secret from her four children: Lily, Merritt, Priscilla, and River. But within a year, the pair headed for the divorce courts. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, she explained, "Not that I was depressed all the time, but I just was unhappy. And so leaving the marriage was my choice — the blame was totally on me but yeah after that I just felt kind of hopeless."

Just like his father, Phil, uncle Si, and brother Alan, Jep Robertson has had his struggles with substance abuse. In fact, things got so bad in his early twenties that his family felt they had no choice but to stage an intervention.

In an interview with "I Am Second," Jep revealed that he started hanging out with the wrong crowd from the age of 18, and pretty soon, he was taking anything — including a formaldehyde-dipped joint known as a 'wet daddy' — that he could get his hands on. Recalling the scariest moment he experienced due to his drug habit, the "Duck Dynasty" star said, "I remember waking up one night. I had one leg in my truck door, and it was on a gravel road, and I was all skinned up ... And I drove somewhere that night, and to this day, I don't know what I did that night. I hope I didn't run over somebody. I don't know."

Even this nightmarish incident didn't inspire Jep to stop indulging. But eventually, he got the motivation he so desperately needed when he turned up to a family meeting at his parents' home. There, he was told that he either had to get his act together and follow God or continue on his path to self-destruction alone. Jep explained, "I just fell down on my knees and started crying and said, 'What took y'all so long?'"

In 2023, Mia Robertson, the daughter of "Duck Dynasty" stars Missy and Jase Robertson, had to undergo surgery for her cleft lip and palate. Remarkably, this was the young adult's 15th such procedure since she was welcomed into the world 20 years earlier.

Shortly before she went into the hospital, Mia posted on Instagram, "I wish I could say that I get used to my surgeries, but I never do. Tomorrow was supposed to be my first day of my sophomore year of college, but the Lord had other plans. Instead of waking up in my new dorm room, headed to my new classes, I'll be headed into a month of pain and weakness."

Nearly a decade previously, Missy told the Christian Post that she believes that her daughter's birth defect, which reportedly affects one in every 1600 newborns, is all part of God's plan: "Looking back, especially over the last couple of years, we definitely see reasons for Him allowing us to go through this and allowing Mia to go through the pain and the challenges that she has in her life. She wants to help other people. To me, that speaks not only about a greatness about her, as an individual, but about the greatness of our God to see something in a child, long before she was born, that could help influence people and to bring them closer to Him. Who am I to question that about Him?"

At the age of 16, Lisa Robertson discovered she was pregnant with the child of a guy who — as she described in her memoir (via E! News) — was "old enough to buy alcohol and drugs." But while the father was pleased to hear the news, her parents had a very different reaction.

Speaking at Louisiana Christian University in 2023, the "Duck Dynasty" favorite recalled, "I didn't have anyone to talk to. I told my parents. I'll never forget the look in my dad's face of disappointment." Her mother told her to get an abortion, a procedure she admits she didn't even know at the time existed.

It was an incident that scarred the pro-life Robertson for life. "That was my baby they took out of my body, I was 16; I am 57 years old now. Every day for 41 years, I've thought about that." The reality TV star went on to have two daughters with Alan Robertson, with the pair also now grandparents to six children.

In 2014, Jep Robertson suffered a near-death experience when he collapsed during a hunting expedition in Louisiana. The reality TV star, who was out shooting deer, not ducks, with friends at the time, suffered a seizure. And because of his remote location, it took nearly two hours for the ambulance to arrive and give him the necessary medical attention.

"I reached to get my bow and that's kind of the last I remember," Robertson told ABC News at his Monroe home. "I just crumpled to the ground and they said I had a seizure for like five minutes. I thought I was a goner ... The time I remember is Thursday — waking up Thursday, looking around, asking Jess, 'What are we doing in the hospital?' I had no idea what had happened four days before."

Despite extensive medical tests, doctors were unable to pinpoint exactly what caused the "Duck Dynasty" star's condition. Robertson said, "They think it was mix between meningitis and encephalitis. For the last month, I've mispronounced words and I didn't know why I did it, but I think it was leading up to the seizure."

If you or anyone you know needs help with mental health, substance abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, or an eating disorder, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

• The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

• The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

• The National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).