We're back with another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Jashnski,
culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can email the show
at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr LST.
Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts, and you can head
over and subscribe to the premium version of our website as well. I have
the real privilege of talking today to somebody whose family has brought a lot of
laughs to my family and families around the country. That would be the one
and only Kay Robertson, whose family life is actually chronicled in a new movie.
It's called The Blind. It's streaming now. It's available on DBD on
Blu Ray now. Sokay, thank you so much for joining the show.
I'm glad I could be here. Tell us a little bit about the film.
Obviously folks should go out and see it. But what does it cover
when it relates to your life and your marriage and even the recent years in
the Robertson family story, Well, we really have. The most of this
is from our teenage years through our twenties actually till Phil became a Christian and
It really is about his life without God and the struggles we had and the
way we though stayed together. And you know, we made it, and
most people wouldn't be able to do that. Because I've seen it over and
over. I try to talk to people about it, and over and over
they keep saying, well, how did you do it? How did you
do it? I said, well, I prayed a lot, and I
had the patience my grandmother told me to have. That's the only way I
can tell you. And you know, I was actually interested in this just
thinking about the movie. You've had to spend a lot of time in recent
years and even talking about it here right now, looking back on a lot
of difficult moments in your marriage, a lot of difficult moments in your life
with the sort of wisdom that comes with having decades in the rearview mirror to
look back on that time, are there any things that stand out to you
as the biggest lessons or the things that maybe surprise you now when you look
back on some of those those difficult moments in your life. Well, I
see clear maybe why Phil and I were to get together so early, in
the fact that my daddy, dad and my mother was dating and drinking and
some of the things that were hard for me that would make me want to
go on to another life. And you know, and then I think looking
at my grandchildren now, I'm thinking how they couldn't have handled that at their
age. I mean, it's like the older like me raised in that time
that I was raised in a lot of people did marry young and they did
start all that, and so you had to be a little bit more mature.
You had to know a little bit more about life, and it just
wasn't playtime all the time. Yeah, that feels accurate. One thing that
maybe would be helpful for people if they haven't seen the film yet, or
maybe they didn't watch Dych Dynasty or at the other shows or all the many
podcasts and great work that your family continues to do. Miss Ka, could
you tell just a little bit about what you guys went through as Phil was
becoming a Christian, your husband, Phil was becoming a Christian, as you
were starting your family and struggling in some of those early days of your marriage.
Yeah, it was real hard because Phil had a ten year run of
being like the devil. I always said he was the devil because he was
living in him, and we were so glad he finally got him out of
him. So, yes, those years were pretty hard, they really were.
But then the new field, we found out it was hard for him
to know how to be good and how to talk right and just a lot
of things that he did. He just needed to learn how to grow in
that area. And at least, thank Dennis, we were in a church
where people were very forgiving because there were things he would say. I'd say,
oh, no, he's going to hurt their feelings. Their feelings.
He's so blunt. And the first time the man come up and put his
arm around him, you know, trying to encourage him, Phil said,
what are you doing? See, he wasn't even used to having a man
put his arm around him just to hug him and encourage him. And so
that was kind of like embarrassing to me the way he feel like. But
that was all a new life to him. He did not know how to
be like that. He does now, but he didn't then. Well you
know, actually, I think though, that's something people really go through,
especially when they're becoming Christians. What advice do you have to people who step
into a Christian life? A Christian life style as well. You know,
I think God really helps us with patience there, he really does. And
you know, in my case, I kind of prepared people for him with
his bluntness and all that, you know, and that he had been in
the world about ten years and he was lovely to say anything. So I
said, it's going to embarrass me, but I want you to understand that
this is his new life and he has to grow and we have to help
it. So number one is don't be so easily offended, and number two
is just help him, helping to know that's not the thing to say,
to not be that blot that ladies don't like to hear what you talk to
me in about. You know. It was a learning, a learning process.
Yeah, And on that note, it sounds like having you actually already
mentioned this a helpful church, a patient church, and that kind of community
where people could sort of get together and exercise, you know, be a
support system or a safety net for somebody who is really new in that world
and is trying to live a Christian lifestyle. How important was that for both
of you and for your family as all of this was happening. So I
want you to know that I grew up in a little church that would never
have done what this church did. And now, don't you know, throw
something at I'm saying, it's just nobody knew how to do that. But
you know, that's been inspiring to me to go back to help other people
say, well, you know, since we've been over here and grown so
much, we've really learned some things that you might be interested in doing at
this church. You know. So it's been really good that way. But
you know, the way that people responded to feel and then they you know,
would put their arms run and pray for him right then and there.
They would call him, they would just they didn't give up. They just
kept checking on him, kept checking on him. And you know, you'd
think, oh, no, they're gonna go away, but they didn't.
They didn't. And it really worked. And now he's checked on people or
gets me to help him check on people and things like that. But he's
he's a complete different man. And tell you that, well, that's amazing.
And when you look back now, I'm very curious about this on when
the show Duck Dynasty originally started and now we're talking about this movie again,
it's called The Blind. Did you ever think, miss Kay, that your
life would be so public that so many different people would know your story and
your name and be so intimately familiar with your family and your family's story.
I never believe that. But the funniest thing was during my life growing up
with you boys, and we feel like that. I remember saying one time,
I said, we're so funny, we should be on TV. And
everybody laughed and laughed and laughed about that. And then another time was like
somebody would say, I wish I could just be around y'all all the time,
and I said, well, that's too hard, and then they said,
well, I wish you could be on TV and then we could just
hear you and know about you because your whole family is so funny and you
have so many stories and there's so many complete learning lessons with your family.
And I said, well, we get out there and try our best to
tell everybody everything we can. But that's why we did have the show,
because people kept asking us that. It's not surprising to me at all that
people used to say that. It came through so clearly on the show.
And that's another question actually about the show that I have when you and actually
the supplies to the movie. Do you feel as though there was a lot
of preparation, that you were being prepared for years for being able to tell
a story and show a happy family. So it's so different than a lot
of what's shown on TV. You know, not a perfect family, but
a happy family. And in the movies. Do you feel like God was
preparing you? I know he was tell us about that. I tell and
if you've ever heard me tell you, I've told you about sitting in the
swing with my grandmother and she told me all these lessons and she told me
this. I mean, she practically raised me to be a teenager because my
parents worked in that store all the time. And so I learned so much
from her, and you know, it didn't ever leave me. I mean,
I'm sure I didn't remember everything, but a lot of it I did.
And I remember she's the one that told me you had to fight for
your marriage and all these things that weren't going to be perfect, that in
my mind, were going to be perfect. I wasn't gonna have to worry
about that. And she said, no, you always struggle. And she
said, if people tell you they've never had one struggle in their marriage,
they're telling you a story I love. I was going to say, I
love the perspective on marriage that you offer. Definitely that this movie offers.
But I wanted to ask you about that because that's a that's a marriage.
That is a concept I think is you know, it's really really uh for
for sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer. And we take
those words and everybody's familiar with them, but maybe it doesn't understand the gravity
and the weight of what it means to take, you know, to to
be married, you know, with the authority of God, and to have
that you know in your mind and in your heart. Can you tell us,
you know, do you worry that that perspective on marriage, the one
that you pushed through and pushed for, is lost in our society today?
Worry about that And in any time I get to talk, I talk about
it, and you know, just like I try to do, like my
grandmother did. She never it was from the time she started talking to me,
it was always that this marriage will be for life, This marriage will
be for life. And I mean that
was just put in me. I put that in other people's head or try
to constantly, and so does feel. And even our family I can say
to this day, fifty members and there's no divorces, there's no separation altogether.
Are we perfect? No? Do we fuss? Yes? But guess
what I think they my kids understand this is for life because they've had some
hard struggles too. Yeah. And you know that's another I wonder you mentioned
your grandmother, and you mentioned your grandmother a lot in public, and that's
a strong female I'm saying character because we're talking about a movie here, but
it's a strong female role model in your life, and you've been a strong
female role model for your own family. Can you also talk to us about
that what it means? And if again, this is something you worry abou
out that women in twenty twenty three, modern women maybe are missing something like
that in different families. Well, I do think they are. And the
thing is that's why we so much talk about it and share it and everything.
And look, they don't think that we're all like I say here and
there, I mean, somebody gets mad. Why daughter and all could disagree
with me and we're you know, we're disagreeing with each other. That is
a way we broke you know, a part or anything. But we do
disagree from paths the time. I'll disagree with my sons and they will with
me. But that's just regular life and it's always going to be that.
You've got your opinion. I've got my opinion. People are different. But
when the big picture comes out and the stay together is there and something happens,
there's no doubt to me my family would be just together even though little
things. I didn't like what she did, she didn't like what I did,
and all that happens, and it does, and it willed every family.
That's just life. But it is not determining that we will this family
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call eight five five six one eight ten thirty. And actually, on that
note, your family has been through a lot as it is documented in this
movie, and just the richer or poorror is a huge part of your family's
story. Can you tell us what it was like as a Christian Christian mother,
a Christian grandmother, a Christian wife to experience the fame that came with
Duck dynasty and all of the sort of public reaction to it. How hard
has that been? Oh, well, it's really funny. I just came
back from a trip and people were teasing me. Did you get recognized?
Well, of course I got recognized. I always get recognized. It just
bothered me day. It's like I meet new friends every day, every day
in my life, but I'm different from the others. The boys sometimes will
say, well, Mom, I don't have time to sit there and sign
things, and you know, you're just giving them your whole life. And
I said, well, if I have the time, I can sign something
for them, or I can do something. I just love it that they
appreciate what we do. They understand we're trying to help people. We're trying
to save marriages, we're trying to bring people to Jesus, and we want
it to be a better and nicer world. And it's much better if we
love each other than if we don't, And that's what I want to teach.
Yeah, you know, why do you think it is that from the
show to the movie people? What is it about the Robertson family story that
people respond to and especially you know in this country Americans. It's a human
story, but it's also a very American story. What do you think it
is that you mix people? I think it's because we are so was that
let yourself go. I mean, we're open and there's nothing we're hiding.
If you say, well, I know something about you that you never told,
well tell me and the next time I give a speech, I'll share
it, and I will because we pretty much opened up everything that we were
not hiding anything. And I think we're the first family that from Grandpa and
Grandma to mother to daddy to her kids, to own and on and onn
just tell it all. And that say well you can't tell that, Yes,
actually you can. You really can. And you need to tell them
how you made it through it, how God helped you. I mean,
there's so many things that you learn and people need to share that to give
other people hope. We should be the very people on this earth that gives
other people hope. And I'm telling you I've been in some spots you're talking
about that bad times. I remember setting on the steps wind Phil was going
out, you know, drinking and doing the other things, and I remember
sitting there all night long on my front steps, and then it just became
daylight and I thought, oh no, and here comes the truck driving in.
Of course, I didn't say a word because I could tell he had
been drinking and it would just be for no good use because he wouldn't be
in the right mind to talk. But he was like, what are you
doing out here? I'd say, waiting for you? In other words,
I know when you came in, you didn't hide ething. But yeah,
that was a rough ten years, you know. I imagine you've heard all
kinds of criticisms of reality TV and all of that over the years. Why
do you think it was so important to actually have a show. And I'm
answering the question a little here from the perspective of somebody who watched it.
But that was positive, centered on family, centered family, centered on faith.
Why do you think the critics who who might you say, you know,
Duck Dynasty people should have nothing to do with reality TV all that.
Why do you think they're wrong? They're wrong because we want people to know
the truth. We want people to know the good, bad and ugly.
But you know a lot of people if they'll have a show and I know
this, I won't tell you I know it, and they're not who they
act like they are, right, Okay, I don't look that that is.
That's just not right to me. If you're going to have a show,
be honest, show it all, show everything. And that's what we
did. And somebody said, how can you be that honest? How can
you tell those things? Because it's the truth. And once we get it
out, you think that I could never tell that. Well, once you
get out, you're glad you did it and you feel better. And somebody
said, I can't believe you did that. Well, we did it,
that's for sure, you know. And of the good. We've met so
many people, We've had so many opportunities. We've got a lot of money.
I don't look like I have any, but I do. And you
know, to help people to do all kinds of things. And you know,
why wouldn't you want to say, God bless us. I want to
tell you about it. I'm not bragging. I'm telling you that he can
help you, and he was there with us in the poor years, he's
been with us in the rich years. How do you or do you have
any stories that stand out of conversations you've had with fans, with people who
have seen your testimony. You're in Phil's testimony as a married couple. Are
there any stories that stand out to you of people's responses, maybe people who
have said this has changed their perspective on marriage, on family, just interactions
you've had with folks over the years that have had well, there has been
many that I believe it any many and then say, how could you tell
that? And I told you just like I'm telling you, it's the truth.
If you're open, you're honest, and that's what's wrong in a lot
of marriage. They're not opening hones with each other much less your friends the
church are people trying to help you. You want me that way, and
you're not going to get helped. To go ahead and admit you have a
problem and say I need God to help me, I need y'all to pray
for me. I need this, you know, and then from there as
that works for the good, even though you'll always have struggles. Then somedays
somebody will say, you know, you're the one that told me to stay
with him or whatever, and we did. And now we've been married,
you know, forty years, and that's the best thing in the world that
we hear. That give me chills a little bit. That's incredible. It's
true. It's true. It's so true. That's amazing. That really is.
That has to on just a personal level. That has to really be
a very rewarding part of putting yourself out there and meeting people from all different
walks of life. It is, it is. And you know, like
I say, this doesn't mean we didn't have problems. I mean, my
oldest son was. They had some really really bad problems and nobody thought they'd
make it. I told Phil, they're gonna make it. I don't care
how ugly this is right now. I know they're gonna get through it.
And they did. And they're on the road all the time, they constantly.
In fact, he came back today and told me about he wouldn't save
me for two weeks. He's gone everywhere. And what he does is goes
in those churches and tells about our family and tell about his life and tells
his story and how they were separated, and it was terrible. I just
don't have time to tell you how terrible it was. And we just even
feel as like, I don't know if they're gonna make it. I said,
Yep, God's gonna get them through that hard to see, but I
know he can get them through it. It's embarrassing for them, for us,
for the church. But I'm gonna tell you now, their story is
so wonderful because it went from the bad, just like the risk of out
like ours, from the bad to the semi good, to the real good,
to the great to I'm almost in heaven. You know you mentioned this
earlier, but substance use and abuse obviously factors heavily into your story. And
sometimes when I think about how people struggle with that, I don't know how
they do it without faith. And I wanted to ask us about the role
of faith in you, your family, your marriage, battling the substance abuse
issue that played well in the first ten years. See, I wasn't where
I needed to be, even though I know this is going to sound not
real good, but I was. I don't know how to say, Okay,
I was not a real bad person. I was lost once in in
your loss, but I wasn't didn't do the things a lot of people did.
In fact, I didn't do the things most people did that were in
the wild world, you know what I mean. I wasn't a wallperst.
I was lost, but I wasn't what you'd call a wallpurst. And but
you know, I kept thinking that my works because I was patient with him,
I was good. I stayed with him. I did all this and
all that. But I thought, well that that would save me if nothing
else. But see, you're not saved on your works. You're not saved
because you're doing good things. You're saved because Jesus wanted to save you.
We didn't do anything, but we can't help. But think if we do
this and do that, will be better and you will be a better person
because I was. I wasn't in trouble. I didn't have the law after
me. But now I just didn't do that. But but it would did
take so much to be able to stay for that long and through all the
things that I went through. And I remember, you know, as I
told in the movie, and the bathroom scene and all that, it was
a point where I thought I was just not going to make it. That's
where I lost. I felt like I was losing all my hope and that
was hard. How hard is it to and hard and strange? How hard
is it to watch yourself be played by someone else in a movie? Maybe
it's not hard, maybe it's exciting, but it has to be at least
a lot. In my case, I'm real pleased. I love who played
me in all roles, and and I actually thought the last girl looked like
me. I really did, and it was like me watching me. It
was so strange, but I was happy with the job she did. I
thought she did great. And is it hard to relive some of these moments
or are you, you know, so used to it that you're you're pretty
well, I'm pretty used to tell our story, just open and telling everything.
But yeah, it's hard to rethink about it. It really is.
I thought, you know, him going out and being with other women all
that's always hard because you pictured, did I know them? Was that somebody
I knew? Or was that you know? Who was that? How did
she look? You know that? Right? Yeah? Oh yeah, it
was hard. That must be one thing I was This is probably the top
question that I wanted to ask because I think it's so interesting how your family
came into sort of the spotlight at a time period when a lot of Americans,
especially people who live in rural areas, especially people of faith, especially
Christians, were feeling kind of isolated and like outsiders and you know, looked
down upon by people, especially kinds of people that make movies and TV shows
and in Hollywood and here where I am in Washington, d C. But
I feel like your show connected with people not just in rural America, but
all over the place in cities and suburbs in Yah can tell me about that,
and I would hear about and cities. You know, I would never
think somebody in a city would love Doug Dynassy and I would think they would
more make fun of us or something, you know, but we were shocked.
We were really shocked. But I think everything that I gathered from talking
to them, they loved our honest they loved our openness. And we will
say, and I would say to anybody, now you want to ask me
something, master is anything, There's no questions you have to say. I
can ask that. And you know, for a lot of people, who
did you have rural backgrounds, Christian backgrounds. You know, they hunted,
they fished, and maybe they were feeling a little put down upon by popular
culture and you know elites again places like Washington, d C. Where I'm
coming to you you all from right now. Why do you think the show
resonated with them, especially at the time that it did. Why Why do
you think that struck a chord with so many people? I don't know.
I think I always will believe we were so honest. They never had heard
somebody, the whole family be that. I think that that was like what
they're really that honest and we were, And somehow they just liked the fact
that we were open enough to just build it all, just tell it all,
and that we passed it down or tried with our children and to do
that. But I mean, we'll be the first ones to tell you it
wasn't easy, and there were a lot of mess ups too, but we
we just held on. It was kind of like you hold on. But
you know, one time one of my sons would be out where he wasn't
supposed to be. We would say he's out, he's out, you know,
like he's in the world. But then he would two years later he'd
be back, we need to be And then I, like I told,
I said, going through the four sons for me. But the only one
that never did that was Jason. Ever he was we called him the Little
John the Baptist. We did. He had the hair, was born,
and he would tell us and in fact, he'd say, if me and
Phil were arguing, he'd say, Dad, you and Mom need to repent.
We're just disagreeing. Jason, Yeah, we all need to repent,
and don't do that. So I had the Little John the Baptist with me
all the time. That's kind of nice. Now he's grown one, but
he's really good but has a beautiful family and everything. And I would say
that him and Willie were probably the two that did not get off in the
wild world very not at all. Now. They weren't perfect, don't get
me wrong, but you know what I'm talking about over here? Will you
go out and drink and party and sleep around or whatever it might be.
The other two, the oldest, the youngest, they had they struggle with
that one time and couple of times in their life. I'd say over a
two year period each one of them. It was really hard. Well,
it's just amazing how your family came out on the other side of it.
But thanks be to God and the movie documents all of this. It's called
The Blind, Miss Kay Robertson, thank you so much. It's just been
a pleasure to talk to you today. Well, it was easy to talk
to you. And I don't mind doing this. I really tell when people
say, why would you go up there and tell everything, It's just what
we do and I don't mind. I really don't. The more people that
want to know, the more I want to tell them. It's an amazing
gift that your family is able to give, to testify to all of the
struggles that you've had and how you've came out on the other side of it.
Really amazing. Thank you so much, Kay, Well, I enjoyed
it. Well, you've been listening to another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour.
I'm Emily Dashinsky, culture editor here at The Federalist. We'll be back
as soon with more. Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for
the Friend. I heard the fame voice the Reason, and then it faded away.