‘Duck Dynasty’ couple opens up about affair, reconciliation ahead of Lifetime film

Al Robertson says he and his wife, Lisa, chose faith over divorce after she had an extramarital relationship — and are now sharing that story on screen.

Mr. Robertson — the eldest son of “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson and his wife, Miss Kay — sat down with Fox News Digital this week ahead of the Saturday premiere of “Faith & Forgiveness: A Duck Dynasty Love Story” on Lifetime, a film based on the couple’s real-life struggle with infidelity and the religious conviction that kept their marriage intact.

“When unfaithfulness happens in a marriage, so many times, that’s the end of it, but it doesn’t have to be,” Mr. Robertson said. “Everything can be worked through.”

The couple first crossed paths as teenagers in a McDonald’s parking lot in West Monroe, Louisiana. Mr. Robertson was 17; Lisa was 15. They married in 1984, had two daughters, and Mr. Robertson went on to serve as a pastor at the church where his family had long been members. During those years away from home, Lisa found herself isolated and lonely.

About 15 years into their marriage, during the summer of 1999, Mr. Robertson grew suspicious that his wife was seeing someone else. She initially denied it. He later used cellphone records to confirm his fears were correct. A temporary separation followed.

“I think for the first few weeks, I was leaning toward thinking that it was probably over,” he said. “I was just not sure if I could ever fully trust again.”

But Mr. Robertson acknowledged his own culpability in the marriage’s early difficulties. In their first years together, he said, he had also been unfaithful — and Lisa had forgiven him and married him anyway. That history, he said, gave him reason to pause before walking away.

“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 said.

For Lisa, the turning point came in her backyard, where she said she dropped to her knees and prayed for the first time with complete honesty. She described it as the moment her faith became real. She subsequently sought baptism, surrounded herself with women rooted in faith, overhauled her habits and appearance, and entered counseling.

“The first thing was that I cried out to God,” she said. “The second thing was to surround myself [with those women]. But then, also the third thing was counseling.”

Lisa also disclosed a history of childhood sexual abuse that she said shaped patterns of dishonesty she carried into adulthood and ultimately into her marriage.

Deadline reported in April that “Faith & Forgiveness” is part of Lifetime’s spring “Love of a Lifetime” banner, a slate of films the network says is rooted in “elevated romance grounded in emotional, authentic love stories.” The film stars Haley Ramm and Luke Benward as the couple and premieres Saturday at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

The Robertson family is no stranger to the biographical film format. In 2023, Phil’s and Miss Kay’s own turbulent early years — marked by addiction and infidelity — were chronicled in “The Blind.”