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ABC/Lou Rocco(LOS ANGELES) — The Dr. Phil show is denying claims that it gave drugs and alcohol to guests who were addicts, after three past guests claimed the show enabled them in an article published by STAT and The Boston Globe.
“The show does not give drugs or alcohol to its guests and any suggestions to the contrary is errant nonsense,” Martin Greenberg, Director of Professional Affairs at the Dr. Phil Show, said in a statement.
One guest to go on record is Survivor winner Todd Herzog. He appeared on Dr. Phil in 2013 to talk about his alcoholism. He says he arrived to the set sober, but was greeted with a bottle of Smirnoff vodka in his dressing room — which he drank — and was then offered a Xanax tablet. By the time he got on set, he was so inebriated he could barely walk.
Marianne Smith tells a similar story. She says when her niece Jordan appeared on the show to discuss her heroin problem, a show producer told the family to go to Skid Row to purchase the drug to help Jordan through withdrawal.
“I was so scared,” Smith told STAT and The Boston Globe.
“Unfortunately, addicts often lash out at the very people who are trying the hardest to help them break the cycle of addiction,” Greenberg’s statement continues. “Although terribly unfortunate, this is an understandable part of the behavior of addicts on their journey to recovery. Deception, dishonesty, and denial are hallmarks of addiction.”
Dr. Phil himself has not commented on the allegations.
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