Lisa Robertson, wife of the beardless Duck Dynasty brother, Alan, revealed in her new book that she had once had an abortion at the age of 17, an affair in 1999 that nearly broke the family apart, and she also gives some information on Alan's alcohol and drug days.
"A New Season: A Robertson Family Love Story of Brokenness and Redemption" is Lisa's newly published book that details an uglier side of the couple's early life and how turning to Jesus Christ helped rebuild their lives. Lisa said that writing about the abortion helped her deal with the pain, and she hopes it will help others dealing with similar issues.
"I thought it was important to include because there are people out there who this has happened to," she told Us Weekly in a recent interview. "I had one girl tell me she has cried herself to sleep just about every night for the last 25 years after having an abortion, and nobody else knows about it. She regretted it all this time, but she just can't seem to find a place of healing from it. So I thought it was a very unique thing for somebody who is in our position to say, 'Look, I did this. And you can find healing and comfort from Jesus in it.'"
Alan Robertson, who is now a preacher, spoke candidly in the book about his destructive behavior as a teenager with drugs and alcohol. "I want people to know that if you're in some bad place, I've been there, and I know the way out," he said in the interview.
The Robertson family of Duck Dynasty are well-known for not being afraid to talk openly about their faith and the strong moral rewards that come from that. While the book's ultimate message centers on God's grace in conjunction with the problems we may be facing, Alan and Lisa write about how the family dealt with some of the worst problems together and how they pulled through.
"It was one of the most difficult things our family has ever gone through," Alan says in regards to how his family had originally told him to leave Lisa after her affair. "What I will say is that once I made the decision that I was in a place where I could forgive Lisa and I wanted our marriage to work, they got on board behind me. It took a little while for each of them in their individual way to work through their issues with Lisa, but they did. And now we're very close and they're very close to her."
"More than anything, it was difficult for me to be around them knowing they felt that way," Lisa added. "But eight or nine months after everything happened, I sent each of them a note, apologizing for how I hurt them and how I hurt Alan, asking for their forgiveness, for our relationship to be back on good footing. That worked out really well."
Learning from those types of mistakes led the couple to group not only through their faith, but also in their marriage. A section of the new book is dedicated to helping others with their own marriages, offering guidelines and tips based on a God-centered relationship. When asked what their most important tip was, Alan said forgiveness and Lisa said honesty.
"To me, honesty is the most important thing," she said. "Because if I cannot be honest with my husband, how can I be honest with myself or with God or my friends?"
