The Heartbreaking Details About Robin McGraw's Personal Life
Robin McGraw is perhaps best known as the wife of television personality Dr. Phil McGraw. "We snuggle in the den on the sofa. ... We love to be at home and binge-watch TV, he has a recliner in the room. I put on my sweatpants and his socks," she once told People about the couple's seemingly typical and mundane marital life outside of her husband's life as a daytime television talk show host.
But as it turns out, Robin's pretty successful in her own right. In addition to attending every live taping of her husband's famous daytime talk show, she's also a New York Times best-selling author, the founder of two charities, runs her very own lifestyle brand aptly titled Robin McGraw Revelation, and even hosts the podcast "I've Got a Secret! with Robin McGraw." Alas, things haven't always been smooth sailing for the housewife turned household name. Here's everything we know about the heartbreaking details surrounding Robin's personal life.
Robin McGraw grew up 'very poor'
Robin McGraw currently resides with her famous hubby, Dr. Phil McGraw, in a palatial 15,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion, complete with a pool, tennis court, and a whopping 11 bathrooms. And it's reported that the couple currently has an impressive net worth of $460 million. But make no mistake — she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth. "I grew up poor and was raised by uneducated parents," Robin penned in the confines of her 2006 book "Inside My Heart: Choosing to Live With Passion and Purpose. "We were blue-collar and sometimes no-collar, and it wasn't unusual for us to have cold cereal for dinner."
And as it turns out, her money problems didn't stop when she became an adult. During an episode of "Phil In The Blanks," Robin revealed that she even put her $99 wedding dress on layaway and paid for it in weekly $5 installments. "We should do it over so I could really have an expensive dress," she joked about her budget bridal duds.
Robin McGraw's father was an alcoholic and gambling addict
Both Robin McGraw and her hubby, Dr. Phil McGraw, quickly found common ground during the early stages of their courtship: both her father and Dr. Phil's father were addicted to alcohol. "I lived in uncertainty every day because of it and didn't like the feeling," Robin said about her father's alcoholism during an interview with New You magazine. Oftentimes, she and her mother were tasked with driving around town searching for him. But that's not all. Her father also had a penchant for gambling as well. "I saw the horrible side of his alcoholism and gambling and what it did to our family," she explained.
Fortunately, Robin was able to take those early traumatic experiences and ultimately use them for good. According to Robin, being privy to the disease of addiction at such a young age pushed her to take control of her own life and destiny. "It taught me compassion and how to have a more accepting and loving spirit."
Robin McGraw's mother died unexpectedly
Although Robin McGraw dealt with a lot of uncertainty as a child due to her father's alcoholism, she is adamant that her mother, Georgia, worked overtime to ensure that Robin and her siblings always felt safe and protected. "What I remember most of all is her smile. Even through the darkest times, my mother never failed to smile. It reassured my siblings and me that when we woke up, there would always be someone in the house taking care of us," Robin penned in a 2022 article for Readers Digest.
Sadly, Robin's time with her mother was abruptly cut short when she died at 58 years old. According to Robin, Georgia called her one day and said she "felt funny" and requested to speak to her son-in-law, Dr. Phil McGraw. "And I said, 'What do you mean by funny?' And before I had even finished that question, she was already gone. She died, that fast, of undiagnosed heart disease," Robin recounted during an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle.
According to Robin, her mother hadn't ever even been to a doctor. "I truly had a revelation that day. I decided to do everything I can to be my best — in mind, body, and soul — so I can take care of my family," she declared to The Hollywood Reporter in 2014.
Robin once kicked Dr. Phil to the curb
Robin McGraw's longstanding and successful marriage to Dr. Phil McGraw has often been a topic of conversation in the media. "People cannot understand when we say we don't fight. They go, 'That's just not natural. You're lying! Couples fight,'" Robin once dished to New You magazine (via the Daily Mail) about the couple's idyllic albeit somewhat mystifying union.
Alas, the couple did hit a rough patch before getting married, and sadly, Robin made the difficult decision to walk away. The story goes that Robin wanted to settle down and get married. Meanwhile, Dr. Phil simply wasn't ready. So what's a girl to do? "She kicked me out," Dr. Phil recalled during a 2006 appearance on CBS' "The Early Show." He added, "She says in the book we broke up. We didn't break up. She said, 'Bye, don't let the door hit you in the butt, buddy.'" Robin maintains, however, that she was just a woman who knew what she wanted — and what he needed. "He just didn't know it right then," she added.
Robin McGraw suffers from a troubling skin condition
Robin McGraw is often hailed for having flawless skin. She does have her very own luxury skincare line, after all, with a gamut of products that serve to cleanse, moisturize, and plump. "My mother had a flair for aesthetics. I inherited my love of creating from her," she told the Hollywood Reporter about the driving force behind the line of products. And when in doubt, she uses her famous hubby as a tester. "He has a huge forehead," she noted.
But as it turns out, even McGraw has faced her fair share of troubling skin issues. "I inherited a condition from my mother called folliculitis, and I've been battling that for my entire life," McGraw revealed to the Daily Mail. "For me, I have it on my face, especially around the chin area. It's a condition in which the hair follicles don't open up, and it's painful for me," she confessed.
Robin McGraw struggled with self-image
Many would agree that Robin McGraw is as beautiful on the outside as she is on the inside, but even she has struggled with self-image over the years. Case in point: her barely there eyebrows. "My brows were just not pretty at all because I tweezed them, and they never grew back," she confessed during an episode of her podcast, "I've Got a Secret! with Robin McGraw." But as the old saying goes, if you're not happy, change it! And that's exactly what McGraw did.
In 2020, she revealed that she had undergone an eyebrow transplant. "It brought my entire face into proportion," she explained to her listeners. "And in my opinion, it actually changed my look." She said she always kept a hairstyle with bangs to hide her brows before the transplant. Since the procedure, however, she is proudly bang-free! "Because of you and my eyebrow transplant, I let my bangs grow out, and I was so happy," she exclaimed to her podcast guest and personal doctor, board-certified surgeon Dr. Marc Dauer.