Top 10 Saddest Moments on Dr. Phil
#10: A “Heartbreaking” Mother-Son Conversation
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Watching upset children is a special kind of heartbreaking. This episode sees Sherry and Todd discussing their violent 8-year-old son with Dr. Phil. This child allegedly throws objects, punches walls, harms animals, and has even stolen his grandfather’s car. Sherry filmed her son in the bathroom, and the video is absolutely devastating; she says things like “the world needs a break from you” and “nobody wants you around.” Meanwhile, the crying child asks his mom why she never takes him to Mamaw’s and why she’s “getting tired” of him, a question his mother has no answer for. Those are questions you never want to hear from a child. Especially your own.
#9: Domestic Abuse Delusions
This is a well-known “Dr. Phil” segment, and for good reason - it is equal parts flabbergasting and soul crushing. It concerns an 18-year-old woman named Romina who believes that physical abuse is a sign of love. In Romina’s own words, “Not just anyone is going to go to jail for you.” This bizarre statement elicits disappointed groans from the audience, and Phil calls it an “idiotic message.” And while it certainly is that, there’s also a level of tragedy to the whole story. We don’t know if Romina has personally been abused or not, but it’s very clear that she has a horrifically warped sense of love and personal relationships. And that is very sad, indeed.
#8: Nicholas Brendon Asks for Help
Actor Nicholas Brendon is known for his roles in “Criminal Minds” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” although he has spiraled into addiction and numerous legal issues over the years. He famously appeared on “Dr. Phil” in 2015 in an attempt to get help, and his segment is legitimately hard to watch. We listen to upsetting voicemails where Brendon pleads for help, and we watch as he cries in front of Phil and acknowledges that he’s felt “hopeless” and “afraid” in the past. While sometimes defensive, he also recounts a time that he cut his wrists with a serrated steak knife in a desperate cry for help, and it’s a very personal detail that few actors would be willing to share. We commend his bravery.
#7: A Suffering Shelley Duvall
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It’s always difficult to watch someone clearly suffering under the strain of mental illness. Shelley Duvall retired from acting in 2002 and retreated from the public eye. She resurfaced on “Dr. Phil” in 2016, and it was very clear that she was not well. She is lucid enough to say, “I’m very sick, I need help,” but she also claims that Robin Williams is not dead but a shapeshifter and that she has an alien implant in her leg. It’s distressing to see and hear, and Phil quickly came under fire for what some interpreted as an exploitative interview. Various celebrities, including Patton Oswalt, Mia Farrow, and Vivian Kubrick, whose father directed Duvall in “The Shining,” were quick to voice their displeasure.
#6: Marianne & Miranda
Marianne discovered that her long-time husband had visited a strip club fifteen years ago, and her extreme reaction was her to radically alter her own body. This included plastic surgery, a massive back tattoo, and breast augmentation. She also resorted to drinking along with these radical physical alterations to cope with her sense of betrayal. To make matters worse, she also tried extending this behavior to her daughter Miranda, convincing her to get breast augmentation and to “have lots of sex.” She claims that sex and physical looks are more important than an education. It’s clear as she talks to Dr. Phil that the ordeal has completely decimated this entire family.
#5: The Girl in the Closet
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“Dr. Phil” hosted a two-part special dedicated to The Girl in the Closet, whose real name is Lauren Kavanaugh. When Kavanaugh was two years old, she was imprisoned in a 4-by-8 foot closet by her mother and stepfather. She was kept in there until she was eight. In that time, she was sexually abused by her stepfather and random men, she was forced to live in her own urine and feces, and her stepfather would often fire an unloaded gun at her head. By the time she was released in 2001, she weighed just 25 pounds. This unimaginable traumatic event has led Kavanaugh to attempt suicide over thirty times. There are no words to truly do justice to how sad and horrific this all is.
#4: The Story of Aneska
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Aneska is a 12-year-old child who causes lots of problems. Her personality was radically altered after falling off a tricycle when she was three. She now suffers from some sort of mental illness, as she claims to hear voices that tell her to commit violent actions. This includes choking her sister, bludgeoning the family’s pet hamster with a flashlight, and squeezing baby birds to death. Aneska has taken over 35 medications to help quell her violent tendencies and has been admitted to treatment centers on nearly twenty separate occasions. It’s a heart-wrenching story about the unpredictability of life, the stresses of mental illness, and the lengths that parents will go to to help their suffering children.
#3: Audrey Confronts All Forms of Domestic Abuse
This special episode about domestic violence concerns Lorain and Mike. Lorain claims that Mike is abusive towards her, and Mike in turn denies any physical mistreatment. Phil then brings in an abuse victim named Audrey to talk to the couple about the spectrum of abuse. Audrey had previously been set on fire by her cop ex-husband after she left him, and was left horribly scarred by the ordeal. Mike is shocked by Audrey’s physical state, and Audrey drops a bombshell on him by asking, “What if it was [Lorain]?” Audrey would later return to “Dr. Phil” after receiving extensive cosmetic surgery, but the scars, both literal and figurative, are still there.
#2: The Harrouff Apology
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In August 2016, a college student named Austin Harrouff stabbed a couple to death and was found attempting to eat the man’s face and abdomen. What do you say to the families of those victims? How can an apology mitigate that kind of loss? Austin’s father knows that words cannot alleviate the horror and grief, but he still shows genuine remorse over his son’s hideous actions. It’s absolutely gut-wrenching to see a loving father grapple with his son’s heinous crime while also apologizing to his victims. Austin himself later talks to Dr. Phil and claims that he blacked out during the events. A forensic psychologist later diagnosed Austin with clinical lycanthropy delusions, which is when someone believes that they are an animal.
#1: Michelle Knight Speaks
Kidnapping victim Michelle Knight became nationally known on May 6, 2013 when she and two other females were rescued from Ariel Castro’s house. Knight had disappeared back in 2002, and authorities believed that she had run away after losing custody of her son, Joey. Knight discussed her decade-long imprisonment with Dr. Phil, and it makes for some truly harrowing TV. They talk about Michelle gagging over her own stench, being raped seven times a day, being eaten away by bugs, and holding her own aborted fetus. You can practically see the madness in her eyes as she recounts the story, and it is morbidly bleak and desolating. There’s a lot of evil in the world, but bravery and determination like Knight’s is worth celebrating.
