- 3 hours ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:06Five months into our reporting about fraud and addiction,
00:12we got probably the weirdest tip that I've ever gotten in my career.
00:18This tipster, a minor celebrity, had read our stories
00:24and said they really needed to talk to us.
00:27The tipster was really emphatic.
00:30It was so unexpected.
00:33They said, you should investigate Dr. Phil.
00:38We were like, what the is that?
00:40I mean, like, that's ridiculous.
00:41We're serious people and we are not going to investigate Dr. Phil
00:44because that is not a serious thing to investigate.
00:48We were wrong.
00:55We haven't asked you to do this anonymously.
00:58This is at your request, is that correct?
01:02Yes.
01:03I hear the ratings are huge, so you must be like, yeah, I'm the man.
01:08Well, if you're going to do it, do it right, I suppose.
01:11But really, I'm proud of what we've done.
01:13I truly think that it's the highest and best use of television.
01:18Dr. Tell it like it is, Phil McGraw!
01:21I would like for people to have a real idea about Dr. Phil.
01:28They are there to get you in and out so fast.
01:31I just have a taxicab literally sitting out there.
01:33I bawled my eyes out in that cab.
01:38They're set up to fail.
01:40They're manipulated.
01:43We had to do absolutely everything that we could to get them there.
01:48I had no say in anything at all the entire time we were there.
01:53My traumatic experiences were seen as entertainment.
01:58Fear is permanent every day.
02:02It was a cult.
02:03You feel like you're working for the devil.
02:06Technically, he's not a real doctor, but, like, he's Dr. Phil.
02:10That's his whole brand.
02:12He is no stranger to controversy, and television's Dr. Phil is under fire once again today.
02:18He's the most successful guy on television.
02:20What happens to this guy? Who can touch him?
02:22I'm never surprised now when somebody comes out and says that Dr. Phil exploited them.
02:40When it comes to talk shows in the sort of 90s, how was America engaging in its problems on national
02:48TV, would you say?
02:49Wow. Okay.
02:52Throughout the 80s, the talk show began to become a bigger and bigger thing, where it would be a family
02:58in crisis.
03:00And the host would talk to them, and maybe they'd bring out an expert.
03:03And Oprah Winfrey very quickly became the queen of daytime television.
03:14She brought a whole bunch of people on at the same time.
03:17Uh, Susie Orman, financial wellness guru.
03:20Uh, Dr. Oz, who is now working for the federal government.
03:23And then Dr. Phil.
03:24My next guest is here to help lead you in the right direction.
03:27I've chosen him because he is the person who helped me the most getting through my trial.
03:33Oprah got to know Dr. Phil from using the business that he had built before he became a TV shrink.
03:40Opening statements are set for today in the Texas Cattlemen's lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey.
03:45Oprah and her production company knew they needed help, so they called Dr. Phil McGraw at Courtroom Sciences.
03:52When you get on the witness stand, it can rock you back on your heels and you can be less
03:57effective than you might be otherwise.
03:59Oprah really liked his manner, so she started bringing him on.
04:03Dr. Phil is here. He's definitely all wound up and ready for action.
04:07He was speaking kind of truth in a way that felt good and felt kind of emotionally satisfying.
04:13You can't be romantic enough for her to want to have sex three times a day, okay?
04:19Dr. Phil was a breakout star. Dr. Phil went from being an occasional guest on the show to being a
04:24regular guest on the show to being a fixture on the show.
04:27Now to a man known to tens of millions of television viewers as simply Dr. Phil.
04:32He's emerged as a top contender for the eyes and ears of advice-starved Americans.
04:36Within a couple of years, they gave him his own show, and immediately, like, his face was suddenly everywhere.
04:42Man, are you making a splash. Your show is what? The number two daytime show after Oprah.
04:48He became like Oprah in that you don't need a last name.
04:52And then when she left, he was on top.
05:02I'm Evan Allen, investigative reporter at the Boston Globe.
05:08In 2017, I was working with another reporter on a series of stories about the addiction treatment industry.
05:17We were starting to get a lot of tips, and it was sort of through that that we got the
05:23tip about the Dr. Phil show.
05:26Ain't life just grand. It's lots of hard work. It truly is.
05:30But really, it is pretty damn glamorous and exciting.
05:35First, we just started watching the show. Like, we watched a lot of Dr. Phil.
05:42In the early days of Dr. Phil, the segments are funnier. They're lighter.
05:47No running water in the bathroom?
05:50I shook y'all's hands when you came up here.
05:53The next clip shows he was a straight-talking Texas guy cutting through the bullshit
06:00because he cares about you, and he's gonna tell you the truth, and it's like a truth that you need
06:04to hear.
06:04You teach people how to treat you, okay? You need to stand your ground and start the negotiation over,
06:12because you got some help now. You got me. All right?
06:17Later, there was a turning point where the tone really shifted.
06:25With every step of investigation that we did, the picture got bigger and darker.
06:34This was the first time that I had ever watched the Dr. Phil show, with my full attention and with
06:39any critical thought.
06:41In the first four years of the show, he still was a licensed psychologist.
06:47Because I feel like I've been given a very powerful platform, and I need to be a good steward of
06:54that influence.
06:55And so I weigh very carefully what I say before I say it, because I know millions of people the
07:00world over are watching him.
07:01But then we found that in 2006, he let his license lapse, which means that he's not a licensed doctor.
07:12After that, you can see yourself. The show became more sensational, more disturbing.
07:19She claims her father is a violent, dangerous psychopath.
07:23It goes from, like, mom's on the edge, to my daughter thinks she's pregnant with baby Jesus, what will the
07:30ultrasound show?
07:31I am pregnant! And it is Jesus.
07:35It is so outrageous.
07:38He presents himself as this trustworthy, straight-talking doctor. That's his whole brand.
07:48But the reality is so at odds with the thing they are pretending to be.
07:56I just don't understand why people go on the show.
08:15I was 16 in high school. That's when I wound up finding out that I was pregnant.
08:24Me and my boyfriend broke up about a month into the pregnancy.
08:32I didn't really feel comfortable with, like, abortion.
08:35I felt that it was the right choice to take care of it and hold myself responsible.
08:43Everybody was very conflicted. My stepfather did not feel confident in my decision.
08:50My mom just wanted to support me.
08:54Her and my stepfather were fighting nonstop.
08:56She was just desperate. She didn't want to have to choose between her husband and her child.
09:04So she wrote into the Dr. Phil show.
09:12The night before flying out, I said to my mom,
09:15please don't make me go on this show.
09:17And that is when she had told me that, you know, if you care about your family,
09:22then you're going to go on the show.
09:24And despite not wanting to go, I went.
09:40When I first talked to the Dr. Phil show, I was reached out to.
09:43I didn't ask for help.
09:45Investigators say Cassandra Taruga wanted to kill a pregnant friend
09:49and then steal her baby by performing a C-section.
09:53In 2011, I was 18 and pregnant when my friend asked to come over to my house.
09:58According to court paperwork, Taruga came over with two large butcher knives and a pair of scissors.
10:04She told me that there was this gift that she wanted to give me.
10:09She told me to turn around and close my eyes.
10:11She just says one, two.
10:14And right when she says three, I felt like there was a knife to my back.
10:20I stood up as fast as I could, ran and turned the light on.
10:24911 was called. The cops were there.
10:26They could all see two large butcher knives.
10:30They also found scissors, disinfectant, a baby onesie, a newborn blanket.
10:35That's when I started to realize she had plotted to kill me and perform a C-section on my body
10:40to take my unborn child.
10:45The next day, I had every news station sitting outside my house.
10:51Everybody wanted to have an interview with me, but they wanted to change my story to make their own narrative
10:57of what had happened.
10:59So I declined everybody until I received an email from a producer from the Dr. Phil show.
11:10They were just kind of different.
11:14They wanted to give me that platform to tell my story and they would be honored to be able to
11:19do this.
11:21They said that specifically?
11:22Specifically. They wanted to give me a platform.
11:26I just trusted what the producers were saying.
11:30The Dr. Phil show was like royalty.
11:32There was nothing but good things that anybody said about him.
11:38That's what it seemed like.
11:47I grew up watching Dr. Phil.
11:50And I was happy to be there.
11:53At the start.
11:56There was no standards around the content that we would produce.
12:01It was never about how can we help this person.
12:06I think I would describe Dr. Phil as something of a manipulative egomaniac.
12:13The guests don't realize how personal they're going to get and how bad it makes them look.
12:21We had to do absolutely everything that we could to get them there.
12:27We were told to tell them that it's going to be life changing, that he's going to help them,
12:30that they're going to get resources that they would never otherwise get.
12:34I would tell many, many other lies.
12:38Everybody believed that he was a real doctor and that, you know, he had the best of intentions for that.
12:43It really wasn't until they actually like got on stage that it all sort of started to fall apart.
12:49I mean, it was really brutal.
12:59They flew me out there.
13:01The producers were super nice.
13:03They sent a cab to come get me and my baby.
13:06They even bought a car seat for him.
13:09I was actually really excited for the whole thing.
13:15I was told to make sure that they were taken care of.
13:19That was my job as a travel coordinator, to make sure that it was flawless from door to door.
13:25Your hotel is going to be paid for, your meals, you'll take care of all of it.
13:31Was that the brief that you were told to make them feel like sort of stars?
13:36Yeah.
13:39We did get picked up by a very large limo.
13:44They gave us a five-star hotel.
13:49The hotel room was very, very nice.
13:52We got $150 of room service a day.
13:56Having somebody come and get me things, especially being a mom, I was like, wow, this is nice.
14:04You're in the glitz of Hollywood.
14:07There's a sedan picking you up and taking him to the studio.
14:11Right into the iconic entrance to Paramount Pictures.
14:17I mean, your head is spinning.
14:20So there was a lot of love bombing, basically.
14:24Yes.
14:25By the people working to get these people on the show.
14:33When you were in it, did you enjoy it?
14:38No.
14:40No.
14:43It was an open area.
14:45Call it the bullpen.
14:48Where all the producers and APs and PAs all sat.
14:53The anxiety just was everywhere in that office.
15:02What was Phil like?
15:07He was an intimidating person.
15:11He was a very tall, big guy.
15:14It's a sort of direct, booming voice coming at you.
15:20And the way Dr. Phil treated the producers, created an environment of fear.
15:27You don't want to end up in a room with Dr. Phil being screamed at.
15:33Fear is permanent anxiety every day.
15:40The producers were high-strung and erotic.
15:43Like, they didn't seem like broken people.
15:46They were just awful people.
15:55I never felt I can go to someone about what was going on.
16:01It's a place of control.
16:05The audience, they don't know the true man behind the persona and the name.
16:12That's all made up. It's a lie.
16:28I was only 17 when my mom wrote the show.
16:35Our family was very broken.
16:39My brother had molested me when we were younger, twice.
16:44He was taken out of the home by family services, and my mom signed away her parental rights to him.
16:53But when he was in the custody of the state, he never actually finished any kind of sexual offender program.
17:00When he turned 18, they let him go, and he moved in with my dad.
17:06He was doing whatever he wanted.
17:09He was just really messed up.
17:16My mom was scared that he was going to re-offend.
17:19She knew he still needed that help.
17:23That's why she wrote the show.
17:27My mom was like, the Dr. Phil show answered me, and we're going to get help.
17:32I had been in therapy for years, but my mom didn't want me to be re-traumatized.
17:39But the Dr. Phil producers said that either I went or they weren't going to do it at all.
17:46You know, he was still my brother.
17:49I thought it would be good for everybody.
17:58When we first got to the studio, the producer that I had been working with from day one was like,
18:04Hi, Angelique. Like, it's so nice to see you.
18:07They start treating you like royalty, making you feel like you're important.
18:10Like, everything about you is amazing.
18:13And it gives you that little bit of trust where you're just like, man, like, I'm so excited for this.
18:22So we started to reach out to guests who had been on the show.
18:25We started to hear the same story again and again.
18:29People described sort of feeling pressure from the producers.
18:34A little bit entrapped almost, like they didn't know how to get out anymore.
18:38And that was when some people described feeling like, maybe I don't want to do this.
18:46We drove to Paramount.
18:50We went to this little area with a bush, kind of hidden.
18:54It was like a little door and in there was all of the interview rooms.
19:00They were very passionate and saying, he wants to help you guys so much.
19:05Like, it's going to be this life changing thing.
19:07And my parents believe this.
19:11So despite going, I was very vocal to the staff that I didn't want to be there.
19:16And they told me that I was being a difficult child and that I just had to do what I
19:19was told.
19:22It actually got to a point where they attempted to coerce me into doing it by telling me that maybe,
19:29you know, if you record your interviews, maybe we can have Dr. Phil help you get your boyfriend back.
19:41When we went to do the interviews, they separated my mom and I.
19:47Once we started filming, one of the producers wanted me to talk in detail about my brother molesting me for
19:57about four hours.
19:59They wanted specific details.
20:02Said in certain ways.
20:06I was kind of forced into that.
20:08And I realized, I want to go home.
20:12When I told the producer, I don't want to do this, she looked directly at me and she said, if
20:17you don't film this episode tomorrow, we won't pay for your way home.
20:25We were a low income family.
20:28We didn't have the money to pay for a plane ride back for all four of us.
20:33So there wasn't really anything we could do about it.
20:37Did you feel in any way in control, like you had agency?
20:43Oh, no, I had, I had no say in anything at all.
20:48I was only 17.
20:51I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
20:56I was just a kid, a very naive, you know, kid.
21:06If you step back and look at the experiences of these guests sort of broadly, they really do mirror the
21:14arc of like an abusive relationship.
21:19Drawing you in, making you dependent, making it so you can't leave and get them to do what you want.
21:28And I do think that that is power.
21:34I mean, one of the guests told us that they risked his life for ratings.
21:45Most of the guests, they're set up to fail, essentially.
21:52When they arrive to the studio, they're manipulated.
21:58Say you have someone who has an alcohol problem.
22:03Let's just casually put vodka in the green room to then come out intoxicated.
22:12Did that happen?
22:15Yeah.
22:16Yeah.
22:18That was after my time.
22:20But I knew about it.
22:24Alcohol in a guest's room, if that would create some drama, was absolutely something that they would do.
22:29The producers would want to set people up.
22:40Todd Herzog, one survivor at 22, he was addicted to alcohol, which is an extremely dangerous type of addiction.
22:51He said that when he went into his dressing room, he found full bottles of vodka and he drank one.
23:00When you watch the episode, Dr. Phil is like, well, we have to get Todd out here.
23:06We'll ask Debbie and Brandon to bring Todd out right now, and that's going to be a bit of a
23:11chore, but we'll do what we can here.
23:14Okay, come on.
23:14Shoot.
23:14Shoot.
23:16Dr. Phil and one of the interventionists each take an arm.
23:21Everyone is quiet, and all you can hear is just Todd crying quietly.
23:28I'm sorry I'm crying because I just can't believe this is happening.
23:36Dr. Phil is like, I want to see how drunk you are.
23:41This is a breathalyzer.
23:43Okay.
23:43I want you to blow into it really hard for five seconds when I tell you.
23:47Okay.
23:49Todd felt like the Dr. Phil show had left the alcohol in his room.
23:56I don't believe they just have breathalyzers hanging around.
24:00It just suggests a level of premeditation.
24:04So then Todd blows a 0.26, which is very high.
24:08And Dr. Phil puts up on his screen the effects of alcohol at that blood alcohol level.
24:15At 0.25, just so all of you know, all mental, physical and sensory functions are severely impaired.
24:23Emotionally and physically numb, impossible loss of consciousness.
24:28And Dr. Phil says, I've never spoken to anyone closer to death.
24:33You can take him to the hospital.
24:35What are you doing?
24:40It was a very weird experience to feel upset at something that everyone else sees
24:46and nobody thinks there's anything wrong with it.
24:50The hypocrisy is so rank.
24:53Once you understand that what it actually is,
24:57is a ritualistic humiliation of people who have come to you for help,
25:05you can't watch it and think it's funny or meaningless anymore.
25:08It's just sad.
25:16Phil is not doing this to help this person.
25:20These people are objects to bring onto stage, bring in ratings, and then get them off.
25:28It's all about the bottom line.
25:33It was dysfunctional and probably amoral and terrible, but it worked well enough to be the top syndicated show.
25:42I think it's hard to tell people to not watch that train wreck,
25:46especially if watching that train wreck makes you feel better about your life.
25:50I don't think that's good for people, but it never stopped the next family from wanting to come in.
25:58If it's a question of, like, ethics versus ratings, we may talk a better game now.
26:06It's, I mean, it's all bullshit.
26:08Like, everyone wants to make, you know, something that'll be shared by a bajillion people on social media.
26:16Ratings always are going to win.
26:22Guests that we spoke to, they described producers telling them how amazing this was going to be
26:27and how Dr. Phil chose them because their story was important.
26:31But I think he saw people as things to be manipulated for ratings.
26:39And then they would get out on stage and it would be just humiliation.
26:50Right after you're done with hair and makeup, they put you in, like, this room.
26:54It was just for my son and I.
26:56Me and my mom weren't even together.
26:59Before getting on the stage, they had us sign stuff.
27:03Did you tell your mom again that you really didn't want to be there?
27:06Yes, I did.
27:06However, my mom told me that since we were already there that it was too late.
27:12At 16, I wasn't comfortable with that.
27:16From my point of view, I did not really have a choice.
27:20I repeated to everybody in the room.
27:23The producers, hair and makeup people, everybody, is there any way we can back out of this?
27:28And they told me no.
27:32I was terrified.
27:38So this is the release.
27:40Dr. Phil does not and will not administer individual, group, or medical therapy.
27:45You have to agree that you will not sue for invasion of privacy, defamation, infliction of emotional distress.
27:54I mean, you give up all your rights to go on the show before you go on it.
27:59And then you go on the show and you're horrifically humiliated in front of America.
28:04And then you're like, oh, I signed away the rights to do anything about this.
28:08I can't even talk about it.
28:13Somebody comes and goes, okay, it's time for you to go on.
28:18You just head out to the stage and all you see is bright lights everywhere.
28:29I remember going up on the stage in front of this live audience.
28:35Physically, I was shaking. I could hardly speak.
28:42When the cameras began to roll, immediately Dr. Phil brought up how teen pregnancy was over-glorified
28:51and introduced me as sort of like Exhibit A.
28:56Were you having unprotected sex?
28:59Yeah, I was having unprotected sex and I was on birth control.
29:03We were all told that it was about bringing the family together,
29:07but I was very, like, shocked and scared to see him picking a side.
29:12Did you get pregnant on purpose?
29:14No, I did not get pregnant on purpose.
29:16Did you want to get pregnant?
29:17No.
29:19And you want to keep the baby?
29:21I'd like to keep the baby.
29:23And raise the baby.
29:26But what you really mean is you want to keep the baby so your family can raise the baby, right?
29:32No.
29:33Immediately, this was about stupid, dumbass Emily who does not know what she's doing.
29:40Who out of everybody involved is least equipped to make this decision?
29:45I haven't even met this man.
29:46And this is what he had already determined about my entire life and all of my capabilities.
29:53She's a child having a child.
29:55But part of growing up is to realize when you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences.
30:00And she chose a behavior here with a consequence that affects a human being for the rest of their life.
30:08Dr. Phil did not ever address that it was my choice.
30:11In fact, I did feel at the time that Dr. Phil was depriving me of that choice.
30:21I felt absolutely humiliated.
30:31There wasn't any kind of conversation with Dr. Phil before we actually started.
30:38Dr. Phil walks out and the whole audience claps.
30:42And then I went out on the stage and, you know, sat in the chair.
30:46And they changed our names to be anonymous.
30:50Well, 17-year-old Addison says her 18-year-old brother, Colin, is selfish, arrogant, and has molested multiple people,
30:59including her.
31:01Once he had talked to me for a little bit, they brought my mom out second.
31:06He talked to my mom and then he said, I just want to let you know that your brother's interview
31:11is going to be played on the screen in front of everybody.
31:14We're going to hear from him now.
31:15Now, he does talk about some of his violation of you in somewhat graphic terms.
31:25We've edited it down as much as possible.
31:28Are you okay with us playing this?
31:31Yeah.
31:31And you had no idea that they were going to do this?
31:34I didn't.
31:36That was the first time I heard him talking about it.
31:41My sister was asleep on the couch.
31:43So I went in there and I was feeling over her clothes.
31:48And then I reached my hand down her pants.
31:51And I took it one step further and reached my hand down her panties.
31:55He went into detail about exactly what he had done to me.
31:59And I was reliving that trauma on a stage in front of an entire audience.
32:06They brought my brother out next.
32:09We had been separated for, for years.
32:14So I did confront him maybe a couple times, but I pretty much stayed quiet after that.
32:21I honestly just sitting there on that stage, I felt like I wanted to die.
32:26And then Dr. Phil kind of leans up, like he's trying to crack a joke.
32:31And he goes, well...
32:32I'd like to thank all of my guests today.
32:34Please, please.
32:35And we'll see you next time.
32:36Mom, stop.
32:37It was like making a joke out of the whole thing.
32:46Dr. Phil walked off the stage, and that was it.
32:53I just remember feeling gutted, like the wind had been knocked out of me.
32:58They don't care about your mental health.
33:00They care about their show.
33:06Of all of the horrible stories that I have heard about the Dr. Phil show,
33:11I think Marcy Newberry's story is the worst.
33:15When you're watching that teenage boy describing in graphic detail,
33:19his sexual assault of his 11-year-old sister.
33:23And then Dr. Phil makes her watch in front of a studio audience.
33:28Who are the people that are watching it and thinking like, yeah, this is good?
33:34It's like child abuse. It's like watching child abuse.
33:38But it's entertainment.
33:46Before I walked out on the stage, I thought I was going to throw up.
33:51Because I had a really bad feeling that something was wrong.
33:57I was prepared to tell my story.
34:00And he immediately goes into, you had warning signs though.
34:04Now you had an instinct and you ignored it, right?
34:07Yes, I did.
34:08You said you had a strange feeling about it.
34:10Yes.
34:11He was like, this happened, yet you did this.
34:14This happened, but you did that.
34:17So it rose to the level that you actually said it out loud.
34:21Yes.
34:21But yet you stayed home alone with her when your mother took the boys to football practice.
34:27And I'm like, yeah, but that's not.
34:29And then he's like, wait, hold on.
34:30But then this happened.
34:31And I'm like, you're not letting me talk.
34:33How do you really ask somebody like, hey, are you trying to kill me?
34:37That's how nice you are.
34:38If the conversation has gotten to the point where that question is part of the dialogue, then it's time for
34:48them to go home.
34:51When the audience and him laughed, that broke me.
34:56I felt humiliated.
34:59I felt like he was blaming me.
35:02And then all of a sudden, he brings out this book.
35:06I wrote this book about people like you.
35:10About nice people who get taken advantage of.
35:14The book is called Life Code.
35:18I was used.
35:20Dr. Phil promoted his book and said that it's about people just like me.
35:25People that are too nice.
35:27But he used the fact that I trusted the Dr. Phil show to do it.
35:32That is what a narcissist does.
35:37And he's a master manipulator on that part.
35:43When the show ends, he doesn't even say a word to you.
35:47He just walks right past you like you're nothing.
35:49Woo.
35:50Hi.
35:52The producers are like, you did so good.
35:54You know, let's go back to your dressing room.
35:57They are there to get you in and out so fast.
36:00I bawled my eyes out in that cab.
36:05I came onto the show to take 10 steps forward.
36:11I had taken 10 steps backwards.
36:14Dr. Phil just basically stated that I was stupid.
36:17And it made me feel like I deserved what happened.
36:22That's always stuck with me.
36:23It's something that I can't get out of my head.
36:25But I'm still working through it, through therapy now.
36:43I just told my mom I was scared to go home.
36:47And I was afraid to face the world after kind of learning that everybody in the world was against me.
36:59My mom, she apologized.
37:02She has told me many times that it was probably the worst decision that she's ever made in her entire
37:08life.
37:10And that she would do anything that she could to take it back.
37:16Because of Dr. Phil, for a very long time, I was very hyper fixated on making sure I was always
37:22doing the right thing.
37:24I suffered a lot of very bad anxiety attacks.
37:29Now I realize that I should have been protected.
37:35I did not have to listen to what everybody told me.
37:40I was not being a difficult child because I didn't feel comfortable going on television.
37:46I had boundaries.
37:48And those boundaries should have been respected.
37:55Despite what Dr. Phil said, I have an incredible daughter.
38:00She is 13.
38:01And she is an honor roll student.
38:05An advanced orchestra.
38:07First chair.
38:08She gets straight A's.
38:10Literally the most thoughtful, empathetic child.
38:15She is everything that Dr. Phil did not expect.
38:27Literally, I remember one guest out of, I mean, 50 plus that left in a better space than they came
38:35in.
38:37The first text that you would get, you've ruined my life.
38:40I'm never going to live this down.
38:42I mean, the messages, just horrible.
38:45Horrible, horrible.
38:48I don't think they really cared about the guests.
38:51I heard they got better.
38:53I think the guests felt like they got thrown out like trash when they bared their souls on this show.
39:01We have an aftercare program where we follow up with 100% of the people that are on the show.
39:08At no expense to them, care in their own community to work out the problem.
39:14There is something that he has over people.
39:19People say that they watched his show and he seemed to help people and he sends people to the best
39:24treatment in the whole world.
39:25But I have a really hard time understanding how you can believe it.
39:31I think people went on this show expecting that it was going to fix their lives.
39:37And that's not what happened.
39:47Once we got home, everything felt different.
39:50I didn't feel okay.
39:54There was a night where my brother's interview just kept playing in my head.
39:58And I decided that I didn't want to be here anymore because I knew that that was going to air
40:02on national television.
40:11I took 30 pain pills.
40:14I fell on the floor and I had a seizure.
40:16And then I was taken to the hospital after that.
40:18I don't remember a lot.
40:20I was really out of it.
40:24I almost died.
40:27The family was still broken.
40:29Honestly, way more than we were before we went on the show.
40:34They throw you out there.
40:36They send you home and you never speak to them again.
40:41I was put in a psychiatric facility for a little bit.
40:45My mom declined mentally and physically.
40:50She's in a nursing home now.
40:52I don't see my dad ever.
40:55And my brother is in prison.
40:58He got five years for possession of child pornography.
41:06I just hope Dr. Phil realizes what he's actually done.
41:11And how deeply they hurt people.
41:16They're a promise of care.
41:18But I can tell you that it comes at a price.
41:23Over a decade of hell for us is just an episode number for Dr. Phil.
41:28I told the neighbors, get cameras. Film it all.
41:33They're paying them as consultants to make sure that the Dr. Phil referrals keep rolling in.
41:38What treatment providers actually go on the Dr. Phil show?
41:41Surely, Dr. Phil wouldn't be sending kids off to be abused.
41:46Dr. Phil says, I have security guards at every door.
41:50Nobody leaves.
41:52All of us have wanted to say, this happened.
41:56Please stop this from happening.
41:59It's very hard to follow the money, but you know the money is going somewhere.
42:15I don't know.
42:21If you don't have to do that right now, you know what's happening here.
42:22You know what I'm talking about?
42:22To save the time and to solve it all.
42:26I have to ask your question.
42:26How do you ask Mr. Phil?
Comments