Shelley Duvall Admitted to Regretting Her Controversial Dr. Phil Interview Before She Died

Before actor Shelley Duvall died in July 2024, her cinematic talents and accolades were overshadowed by hardships in her personal mental and physical health struggles. In 2016, she made a rare television appearance on The Dr. Phil Show , where she told host Dr. Phil McGraw she was "sick" and needed help.

Some of the moments from the interview included her saying she had a "whirring disc" on her and felt her co-star, Robin Williams , who died in 2014, was still alive as a shape-shifter.

Dr. Phil was bashed by Shelley's fans for putting her on his show. Before the actor passed, the former daytime host clapped back at the naysayers and felt he did what was best for her.

Dr. Phil doesn't "regret" his 2016 Shelley Duvall interview but admits it could've been handled better.

Dr. Phil told CNN in July 2023 that he received many comments about his interview with Shelley being "unbecoming" and exploitative of her fragile state. The host admitted the interview could've been promoted to better show all of the topics they covered, but he said he "doesn't regret" it overall.

“Oh, I don’t regret what I did,” he said. "What I did regret is that it was promoted in a way that people thought was unbecoming,” he explained. “There are parts of that story I haven’t talked about and won’t talk about in specifics, but I can say generally that we worked with her family.”

“We worked with her for over a year off-camera after that fact,” Dr. Phil continued. “Providing her opportunities for inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care — I can’t tell you the extent we went to.”

Shelley spoke about her Dr. Phil appearance in 2021. She said she regretted being on the show and did it without her partner, Dan Gilroy 's, knowledge.