If you watched Duck Dynasty back in the day, you probably figured the Robertsons had it all figured out. It all looked pretty solid from the couch, but Al Robertson, Phil and Miss Kay’s oldest kid, and his wife Lisa were living a completely different story behind closed doors. They spent years struggling with a marriage full of infidelity and pain, and their story is now making it’s way to Lifetime as a film
Al and Lisa first crossed paths in a McDonald’s parking lot in West Monroe, Louisiana. He was 17, she was 15, and by all accounts it was the kind of small-town teenage connection that either fades out or follows you for life and for them, it followed. They dated on and off for years and eventually married in 1984, starting a family and building a life rooted in church and community. They were popular for fans of Duck Dynasty.
Duck Dynasty stars then slowly got into a messy marriage
The first warning sign came about ten years into the Duck Dynasty stars’ marriage, somewhere in the late eighties. Al found out Lisa had gotten emotionally involved with a guy she worked with and she has even booked a hotel room, though nothing physical ever happened. The other man’s wife said everything to Al and even then, Lisa tried to downplay the whole thing. They thought they got through it, but clearly they did not.
Fifteen years into the marriage, an old boyfriend reached back out to Lisa at work and one thing led to another and she ended up in a full-on affair that went on for fourteen months. Al started getting suspicious that summer and kept asking her directly but she kept denying it. She’s admitted since that the whole time it was going on, she was hoping it would just quietly disappear and nobody would ever find out.
When she finally came clean that fall, Al told her to leave. Lisa packed what she could, and before she walked out she went to their backyard and just lay down in the grass, face down, completely falling apart. In one conversation she’d lost her husband, her kids’ daily life, her church, her whole community, basically everything she’d built and she’s described that moment as hitting absolute rock bottom.
However, Al didn’t file for divorce and instead stepped back, thought about his own history, his drinking and reckless years before he got serious about faith, and figured he wasn’t exactly built from different material than she was.
They went to counseling and Lisa has talked about how much she had to change; how she dressed, how she talked, who she spent time with, how she carried herself around other men. They got new rings after that and Al promised he’d never throw her past in her face.
Now Lifetime is premiering Faith and Forgiveness: A Duck Dynasty Love Story on May 16, with Haley Ramm and Luke Benward playing Al and Lisa. The real Al and Lisa are fully behind it and their whole thing now is reaching couples who think what they’re going through is too broken to fix.
Duck Dynasty is available to stream on Prime Video.
Edited by Nibir Konwar