Twelve years ago, Sara says she gave birth to a baby girl and then, two years later, had a baby boy. After saying she did not connect with her son, Sara eventually gave him to his father to raise. Then, when she says she found herself too “stressed out to raise her daughter,” she gave her to her parents, Tracy and Bret. Now, Tracy and Bret say they wonder how their daughter could have just given up on motherhood. Tracy, Bret and Sara’s older sister, Heather, say now that Sara is childless, she still struggles with life and spends her time partying, to such an extreme that she acts like something out of “Girls Gone Wild.”
Jacob’s son Blake was burned at 2 1/2 years old on a treadmill in his sister Ellen’s home at Thanksgiving in 2014. Jacob claims Ellen was 100% responsible for his son’s injuries and scars. Jacob’s wife, Beth, says that their family was uninvited to further Thanksgivings by Ellen. Ellen says that she never uninvited Jacob and his family, is not responsible for Blake’s injuries and says that in the four-and-a-half years Jacob has held this grudge, Blake hasn’t developed scars. Ellen and Jacob’s brother, Ed, says that he’s tried to play mediator, but after Jacob went on a social media rant in February 2019, rehashing the accident and continuing to blame Ellen, he knew that this unhealthy family feud needed bigger help. Can Dr. Phil help these siblings mend fences?
Elsa claims she was abused almost daily and beaten with ropes, chains and whips by the people she thought were her adoptive parents, Joe and his wife, Evangeline. Elsa claims Evangeline smashed her fingers with a hammer, cut off part of her tongue with a pair of clippers and even tied her to her highchair and threw her down two flights of stairs. When she would get grounded, she claims Joe and Evangeline would starve her for 1-2 weeks. Elsa says the abuse lasted for years until an unlikely person stepped up and helped rescue her. Find out what Detective Debbie Richmond discovered when she saw Elsa at the hospital. We’ll also hear why Elsa says she refused to talk to police, and how her aunt Susan convinced her.
Forty-seven-year-old Adam says he needs Dr. Phil’s help because he’s never had a girlfriend, never been in love, and no woman has ever loved him. He says out of the hundreds of dates he’s been on, he rarely gets a third date. By 50, he says he wants to be married with children but fears he will never get there if he can’t even snag a third date. Dr. Phil sends Adam on a speed date with five single women to dissect what Adam may be doing wrong on dates. By the end of the show, after Dr. Phil gets in Adam’s ear, will one of these ladies give Adam a second chance?
Annie and Josh say their mother, Shauna Taylor, created non-existent illnesses and put them through medical workups that were painful and occasionally dangerous. Josh says not only did his mother constantly take him to the hospital where he says he had two unnecessary spinal taps, he claims she also locked him and his brother in a dog cage and threw them around the room. Shauna was eventually diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome by proxy and had her children removed from her care. Shauna’s then-husband, Bill, says he had no idea that Shauna was harming their children until he was contacted by social services, and the children were removed from their care. Josh and Annie want to know if Bill really had no idea, as he claims, or did he suspect that something was wrong? Josh and Annie say they are afraid they may become like their mother. And, hear from an international expert on Factitious Disorder.
Twenty-six-year-old Megan claims from the age of 7, she was repeatedly sexually abused and raped. As a teen, Megan claims her parents threw her out on the streets, where she says she was raped over 100 times. Megan claims she spent her 21st birthday chained to a bed – after being abducted, beaten, and sex trafficked. Megan’s mother, Beth, emailed Dr. Phil for help. Even though Beth claims her daughter’s trauma has left her “non-functioning,” she also says Megan needs to pull herself together and get a job, because she says she and her husband, Steve, are done bankrolling her.
Fifteen-year-old Dawson says he is not the person his parents, Chris and Dawn, believe he is. He says their perception of him is based on their childhood memories of him playing baseball and going on family vacations. Dawson says he wants more freedom to do the things he enjoys, such as smoking marijuana and hanging out in the streets, where he posts photos on social media of himself holding guns. Dawson shared some videos he posted on social media with Dr. Phil producers – and his parents were shocked and horrified to see what their son was up to right in their own neighborhood. Later, hear from Dawson’s aunt Abbie, who says her minivan was trashed after Dawson went joyriding in it at 110 miles per hour. Not convinced Dawson really understood what his future could look like if he kept idealizing this criminal lifestyle, Dr. Phil presented a group of people to explain the consequences of dangerous behavior, including a former gang member and a woman currently paralyzed as the result of a reckless car accident.
Shelly says when she married her husband, David, less than a year ago, she had no idea that divorce might be a possibility. While Shelly claims David is verbally abusive and controlling, David says his wife thrives on drama, loves attention, and refuses to let go of the past rather than try to work on a better future. David claims he feels Shelly’s health issues control a lot of her emotions. Shelly says she desperately wants Dr. Phil’s help to save her marriage. Then, Sandra says 26 years ago, she thought it was just a typical day of running errands at the mall, but instead, it was a day that will haunt her forever. Sandra says at 21, she was kidnapped at gunpoint and told that if she tried to run, her kidnapper would kill her! Sandra says she was able to escape, but her anxiety and traumas from her past are still affecting her daily life and current relationship with her husband. Will Sandra find a way to heal from her past?
James says his 58-year-old Aunt Terri is a very smart and independent woman, who is a marriage counselor with a master’s degree in clinical psychology. James claims Aunt Terri has fallen for a celebrity catfish scam, by believing she was romantically involved with Hollywood actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan from The Walking Dead. Terri says she even believed he wanted to marry her. Whoever contacted Terri online isn’t the real Jeffrey Dean Morgan. But Terri claims she’s 100 percent convinced that the actor or someone working with him is her “secret lover” who scammed her out of thousands of dollars, and put her in the center of an international money laundering scam that left her broke, brokenhearted, and potentially behind bars.
Nancy is a concerned grandmother who says she’s pleading for her daughter, Paige’s, life because she claims Paige stopped caring for her 18-month-old little girl. Nancy and her husband, Lance, say Paige left her daughter with them to live in a car with her girlfriend. Her girlfriend recently entered a treatment facility, and Paige moved in with her parents, but they fear that the minute her girlfriend is released, Paige will go back to living in a car with her girlfriend and leave her daughter behind with them. Lance says he’s been waiting to confront his daughter until they get on Dr. Phil’s stage. The family comes together to stop Paige before she hits the road again.
Megan says that six months ago, she was shocked to discover that her sister-in-law, Lindsay, was hiding a dark secret, and her brother, Chad, was covering up for her. Megan says all was exposed after Lindsay was arrested for allegedly being under the influence of heroin and crashing her SUV into multiple cars with her infant son in the backseat. That’s when Megan says Chad came clean about Lindsay’s long-term drug addiction. Megan says he even admitted that Lindsay overdosed while three months pregnant, and their baby was born addicted. Megan says despite everything, Chad is giving his wife another chance and allowing Lindsay to be alone with their infant son. Lindsay insists she is six months sober, but is she telling the truth?
Harley says when she met her boyfriend, Bailey, on a dating app, she knew he was unable to walk but that didn’t stop her from getting to know him and falling in love. Now, three years later, she says she is at the end of her rope being his full-time caregiver. She says all they do is fight, and she feels so guilty for getting frustrated with him. Bailey says nine years after the accident that left him paralyzed, things started to look up when he met his beautiful girlfriend. Now, he says he constantly feels like a burden to Harley and all those around him and wonders if it would be better if he just moved into a nursing home and died. Harley and Bailey both say they love each other and are willing to do whatever it takes to make things right. Can this relationship be saved?
Authorities release a shocking five-hour prison confession from Colorado killer dad Chris Watts describing disturbing new details about the murder of his pregnant wife, Shan’ann, and their two daughters. In an exclusive interview, Shan’ann’s parents and brother reveal their reaction to Watts finally admitting what happened to their daughter and grandchildren in their final moments.
Danielle and Nick insist they were great parents to their now 8-year-old daughter. They claim it’s been nearly two years since Danielle’s sister, Kimberly, has “kidnapped” their daughter and not allowed them to visit her. Kimberly claims she had no choice but to obtain guardianship of her niece because she says Danielle and Nick are drug addicts and have a history of arrests. She also claims they both neglected the little girl while they disappeared to do drugs. Nick and Danielle admit they were drug addicts but say they’re clean now. They deny all of Kimberly’s accusations of neglect, and say coming to Dr. Phil is their chance to fight to bring their little girl home, despite currently living in a homeless shelter.
Actor Gary Busey has appeared in hundreds of movies and was nominated for an Academy Award for playing Buddy Holly in “The Buddy Holly Story.” But as his star continued to rise, so did his dangerous behavior. He made headlines for multiple arrests and a near-fatal motorcycle accident that caused a traumatic brain injury, leaving him known more for his off-camera antics than his blockbuster films. The actor is once again in the news with his new autobiography, Buseyisms: Gary Busey’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, where he shares his ups and downs of almost 50 years in Hollywood and surviving a drug overdose. In his book, Busey talks about how a man who called himself the “Devil” showed up at his door with a box and that led to his addiction. Find out what was in that little blue box. Plus, meet Busey’s doctor and find out what he says he discovered when he did a SPECT scan of the famous actor’s brain. Can this discovery explain Busey’s publicized erratic behavior?
In a matter of weeks, Marcea says her marriage to Dustin, whom she calls her “narcissistic, alcoholic, playboy husband,” will be over. Marcea claims Dustin was on a sugar daddy website looking for “discretion” and “friends with benefits,” paying college girls thousands of dollars for “unknown services.” If that wasn’t enough, Marcea claims he paid a ransom to prevent himself from being exposed. But, the divorce papers were not served by Marcea; they were served to Marcea by Dustin, who denies Marcea’s accusations and says he has had enough of Marcea’s controlling ways. Plus, from E!’s Botched and Heather Dubrow’s World podcast, Dr. Terry and Heather Dubrow share exciting details about their new book, The Dubrow Diet, which is based on the concept of interval eating, which they say allows you to lose weight and feel ageless.
Jimmy was the original drummer for legendary band Brooks and Dunn, but there is one area of his life that he says has completely gone off beat, his 37-year-old daughter, Tia. His wife Donna, Tia’s stepmother, says Tia has made all sorts of untrue accusations about her. And Jimmy says the accusations Tia has made against him, including sexual molestation, are even more outrageous and untrue. Jimmy says if there is one person who can break Tia’s loop of dysfunction, it’s Dr. Phil.