The Shady Reason Dr. Phil's First Marriage Ended, According To His Ex-Wife

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

There are a slew of tragic details about Dr. Phil's first wife, Debbie Higgins McCall, including her seemingly contentious relationship with the TV therapist. It is well known that Phil McGraw, a.k.a Dr. Phil, has been married to his wife, Robin, for decades — and there have been many strange details about their relationship that have boiled to the surface over the years. But what's even stranger than his current relationship is his previous one. The story of McGraw's marriage and divorce from McCall is riddled with hostility and adultery. And as McCall revealed to the Kansas City Star in 2002 (via The Stockton Record) and in the 2005 biography "The Making of Dr. Phil: The Straight-Talking True Story of Everyone's Favorite Therapist," the relationship fizzled out roughly three years after tying the knot.

According to McCall, who seldom spoke to the press about her marriage to the relationship and family therapist before she died in 2014, McGraw was a different man as a husband than he was as a boyfriend, and he even admitted to cheating on her. After neighbors confessed to her that they saw McGraw bring home another woman, McCall said she approached him about it, per the biography. ”When I confronted him about his infidelities, he didn't deny these girls and told me that it had nothing to do with his feelings toward me, to grow up, that's the way it was in the world,” she said. While his philandering was seemingly the nail in the coffin, many other details of their relationship led to their ultimate split.

Phil McGraw and his ex-wife, Debbie Higgins McCall, perceived the end of their marriage differently. In a 2002 interview with Newsweek, the "Dr. Phil" star considered their relationship to be a mutual mistake. "I was the big football player, and she was the cheerleader. This was just the next thing to do," he said of their decision to marry, adding of their divorce, "We never had a cross word. We just sat down and said, 'Why did we do this?'" However, according to those who watched their relationship crumble, it wasn't quite as simple as he made it out to be.

Bill Higgins, McCall's brother, gave insight into what their marriage looked like from an outsider's perspective in "The Making of Dr. Phil." He believed that McGraw's adultery was enough incentive to divorce, saying, "And then for him to be so blatant about it ... that made her even madder, of course." Others believed it wasn't naivety — as McGraw described it — so much as they were simply ill-fit for each other.

McCall had her own issues with their marriage. She told the Kansas City Star that McGraw was incredibly controlling, whether it be about her career or her appearance. According to his ex-wife, the talk show host wouldn't let her work at the business he owned, and expected her to "look nice." No wonder Dr. Phil has extensive knowledge about what not to do in a marriage.