A Duck Dynasty star is opening up about a shocking marital betrayal – and the surprising step that ultimately saved his marriage.
Al Robertson, the eldest son of the late Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson and Miss Kay Robertson, gets candid about the turmoil he and his wife Lisa faced in a new Lifetime documentary Faith & Forgiveness.
The film delves into the moment Al discovered Lisa had been involved with an ex-boyfriend 15 years into their marriage – and how their faith helped guide them back together.
‘When unfaithfulness happens in a marriage, so many times, that’s the end of it, but it doesn’t have to be,’ Robertson told Fox News. ‘Everything can be worked through.’
‘I think the reason I was willing to fight for my marriage was that I had made a lot of mistakes on my own,’ he added.
The couple’s story began long before any drama: they first met in a McDonald’s parking lot in West Monroe, Louisiana. Al was 17, while Lisa was 15.
Duck Dynasty’s Al Robertson gets candid about the turmoil he and his wife Lisa faced in a new Lifetime documentary Faith & Forgiveness
Al is the eldest son of the late Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson and Miss Kay Robertson
hey had an on-and-off romance before ultimately marrying in 1984.
‘When I first met Lisa, she was a good girl, looking for her “knight in shining armor”,’ Al admitted. ‘I just wasn’t that guy in the early years.’
After welcoming two daughters, Al became a pastor at a church the family had long been part of, leaving Lisa feeling ‘lonely and isolated’ while he was away.
‘She was dealing with all this internal stuff from when she was young. I didn’t recognise it,’ he said.
Lisa revealed to Fox News that she had been haunted by a traumatic childhood.
‘From an early age, at age 7, I was subjected to someone molesting me… I started on that trail of dishonesty at that point, and that darkness really began there,’ she recalled.
Years later, an old boyfriend reached out to Lisa, and she soon became caught up in an affair.
By the summer of 1999, Al grew suspicious.
The film delves into the moment Al discovered Lisa had been involved with an ex-boyfriend 15 years into their marriage – and how their faith helped guide them back together
Lisa repeatedly denied anything was happening, but cellphone records eventually revealed the truth, leading the couple to agree on a temporary separation.
‘I had prayed all through this affair that God would open a door for me to walk away and that nobody would ever find out,’ Lisa admitted. ‘I didn’t think [our marriage] would make it… If he ever found out, I just knew it was over.’
Al confessed he wasn’t sure their marriage could survive either. ‘For the first few weeks, I was leaning toward thinking it was probably over… I wasn’t sure Lisa really wanted to be in our marriage,’ he said.
Lisa described a moment of clarity in her backyard, crying out to God and confessing everything.
‘Once I turned my life over to the Lord, He came and met me right there… From that day forward, I knew I could make it,’ she said.
She embraced her faith fully, joined a supportive circle of women, and began counseling alongside Al.
‘I changed so many things… the way I dressed, the way I approached men, even how I talked,’ Lisa explained.
Meanwhile, Al reflected on his own early infidelity and wondered if he could match the forgiveness Lisa had shown him
Lisa repeatedly denied anything was happening, but cellphone records eventually revealed the truth, leading the couple to agree on a temporary separation
‘What changed my mind about Lisa was her… She had finally come to a reckoning in her own life,’ he said.
‘I think out of my own appreciation for not only what God had done for me, but also what Lisa had done for me, it gave me that capacity to forgive infidelity,’ Robertson continued.
‘Her growth in those early weeks is what won me over… That’s when it all changed. We knew we were going to find our way back together.’
In December 1999, the couple renewed their vows, putting the past firmly behind them.
The Lifetime film Faith & Forgiveness premieres on May 16.
