Duck Dynasty star Phil Roberston, the controversial patriarch of the Robertson clan who have become national icons as a result of the A&E reality show, was hospitalized with an unknown ailment Tuesday. The revelation came from Robertson’s granddaughter, Sadie Robertson, who made her own television debut — outside of Duck Dyansty — on Dancing With The Stars Tuesday night.
The ABC-TV dance competition show premiered its 19th season Tuesday with Sadie Robertson as one of the celebrity contestants. But only two other members of the Robertson family were in the audience to support her at the Los Angeles studio from which the show is broadcast.
When asked why her family’s attendance was poor, the 17-year-old Robertson family member revealed the troubles experienced by her grandfather, Phil Robertson.
The Duck Dynasty family members were to be found, “lots of different places,” she told the Life & Style site. “My grandpa actually had to go to the hospital tonight. So a lot of them are with him,” she said.
But Sadie Robertson declined to disclose the ailment that caused her 68-year-old grandfather to make a trip to the hospital, saying only, “he’s going to be fine.”
Phil Robertson has been forthright in discussing what he has called the “sex, drugs and rock and roll” lifestyle that preceded his conversion to fundamentalist Christianity.
A press representative for the Duck Dynasty star, and author of the autobiography Happy, Happy Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander , told Life & Style that Phil Robertson was released from the hospital — though it was not revealed to which Los Angeles hospital Robertson was admitted.
The Duck Dynasty star was said to be resting at Sadie Robertson’s Los Angeles apartment.
Sadie Robertson is the daughter of Phil Roberston’s son Willie, the CEO of the Duck Commander company.
Due to his mysterious hospitalization, Phil Robertson missed a successful dancing debut by his granddaughter, who successfully passed through to the competition’s next round. The performance outdid former Olympic track star — and Robertson’s fellow Louisiana native — Lolo Jones, who was eliminated in the first round.
Betsey Johnson, the 72-year-old celebrity fashion designer, also survived to advance to the next stage of the Dancing With The Stars competition.
Phil Robertson has gained wide notoriety by using the platform of his Duck Dynasty fame to promote his conservative Christian beliefs, most recently causing controversy by declaring in an interview that AIDS is God’s punishment for the “sexual immorality” of gay people.
