9 Quick Questions for Dr. Phil

Like your grandkids?

Exactly. I’ve got four, and I’m so blessed. We have two boys and they’re 44 [Jay McGraw] and 37 [Jordan McGraw] and they’re both fine young men. They’re both married and have two kids each, and they’re both very successful financially, very successful as citizens and as loving and caring fathers and sons. I look at that and I think, I have won the kid lottery. It wasn’t by mistake. Robin’s a wonderful mother. I get to talk to both of them pretty much every day. We’ve got several businesses together. I kind of got into things where [there is] a reason for them to talk to me every day. We usually get along really well. And the two brothers get along great. They’re each other’s biggest fans.

What do you like to do with your grandkids?

They’re so into their team sports [and] I love to watch Avery [13] play volleyball, and London [12] plays football and basketball, and so I get to go to all their games. And then they love the water. We go to the Bahamas a lot and the Mediterranean, and they both scuba dive and water-ski and wakeboard. I have two other [grandkids]: Row just turned 3 and her little brother, Grey, just turned 2, [and it’s] so much fun watching their personalities develop. Row is so funny. I come in and she finds everything she can find and puts [her toys] in my lap, and Grey’s got his cars, and I have to get on the floor and play cars with him.

AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal

Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.

Join Now

Do you also scuba dive, wakeboard and water-ski?

I don’t wakeboard, but I water-ski, scuba dive [and] snorkel with them, and that keeps me young. I love scuba diving. I’ve probably done 500 dives, and I’ve been down with Avery and London both, and we just have a ball. It’s so fun to show them things for the first time.

What else do you do to keep in shape?

I play tennis probably six or seven days a week. I’ve got a clay court at my house here in Dallas and a clay court at my house in Beverly Hills, and I’ve got a group of friends that I’ve been playing tennis with for 30-plus years. Tennis is my social life, my exercise life, my tension release. It’s everything. I love it so much. The guys I play with, most of them are nationally ranked in [the] 60s and 65s [age groups]. They’re all Division I college players or have been on the [pro tennis] tour. So it’s a really good brand of tennis.

That’s pretty physically demanding. Have you had any injuries? Maybe pivot to pickleball?

I actually have played pickleball some. It’s fun. I've had three rotator cuff repairs. I’ve replaced my left knee totally, and I was back hitting [tennis balls] within three weeks. They said it would be six to eight months [before I could play again following the knee replacement], but I was hitting ground strokes at three weeks and played a match at four weeks. It wasn’t much of a hiccup at all. I’m so glad I got it done. It was so much better afterwards. They say, “You know when you need it.” Boy, was that true.

More Members Only Access 

Watch documentaries and tutorials, take quizzes, read interviews and much more exclusively for members

View More

You’ve been publicly giving advice since you first appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show back in the ’90s. Who gave you your best advice? 

You’re making me feel old — but you’re exactly right. When I was growing up, my dad was a really bad alcoholic. [When] I say bad, I mean half the time we had to get up and go find the car because he had no idea where it was. It was a really chaotic home. I spent some time in my teens living on the street, frankly, [with] just no home at all. All of those things did two things: It kept me from ever being judgmental of somebody else. And it taught me about creating your own experience. I got into athletics and I had coaches who taught me: Look, you create your own experience. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have. It doesn’t matter what your intentions are. It matters what you do. I think that’s the reason that I got to be so straightforward and call it like it is, because you get on the field [and] it doesn’t matter who you are, or who you know, or how nice of a car you rode over there in. It matters how fast you can run, how high you can jump, and who you can knock down. I got to be really results-oriented. It’s results that count — what you get done.