Debbie Higgins McCall – Bio & Facts About Phil McGraw’s Ex-Wife

Debbie Higgins McCall – Bio & Facts About Phil McGraw’s Ex-Wife

The name Debbie Higgins McCall isn’t one that immediately rings a bell in the entertainment space even though she briefly worked in the entertainment industry as an editor. She is one of many people that have been dragged into the spotlight as a result of their affiliation with a more popular figure. In her case, her relationship with Phil McGraw aka Dr. Phil is responsible for making her a subject of interest to many. She was previously married to a famous TV personality before he married his current wife, Robin. Here is a detail of how things went down with them as well as some quick facts about her own life.

Debbie Higgins McCall Biography

There is very little information regarding Debbie’s formative years, however, it has been established that she was born sometime in the ’50s but her actual date of birth is unknown.

She grew up in Kansas and attended Shawnee Mission High School. This was where she met and fell in love with Phil McGraw who was a popular football player at the school and she was a star cheerleader. According to their schoolmates, the two were considered inseparable. Their love affair led them to an early marriage while they were both aged 20 years.

She had her tertiary education at the Massachusetts Institute of Commerce. Prior to her marriage, she had a decent career as an editor and worked on film projects such as Demon Hunters: Fear the Silence and Christy Mathewson Day.

Her Relationship With Phil McGraw

Debbie Higgins McCall described Phil McGraw’s behavior in their marriage as domineering and philandering as he imposed on her to lift weights in order to look a certain way whereas he kept having affairs with various women.

She received several reports about his escapades while he ran a health spa, but the final straw came when she returned from a trip and came to realize that McGraw had brought several women to their home. Upon confronting her then-husband about it, he made little of it saying that it was not something unusual and that she had better get used to it. At this point, she decided she had had enough and requested a divorce.

About Her Ex-Husband

Phil McGraw (born Phillip Calvin McGraw) is a popular American Talk show host, psychologist, and author. He is the host of the popular television talk show Dr. Phil. Phil was born on the 1st of September 1950 to Anne Geraldine and Joseph McGraw Jr in Vinita Oklahoma USA. He was raised along with his sisters in North Texas. His father, Joseph McGraw Jr. had dreamed of becoming a psychologist for many years and decided to actualize that dream by quitting his job as an equipment salesman and moving the family to Kansas to pursue this lifelong dream.

After the McGraw family’s move to Kansas, Phil McGraw enrolled at Shawnee Mission High School, Overland Park where he played football while studying for his high school diploma. This was where he met with Debbie Higgins McCall and they soon started dating. His prowess on the football field earned him a scholarship to the University of Tulsa where continued to play football as the middle linebacker of the college football team. He later transferred to Midwestern State University, Texas where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1975.

He continued with his studies at the University of North Texas for a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology and ultimately bagged a Clinical Psychology Ph. D from the same institution.

Phil McGraw’s career and life like those of many public figures, has not been without its share of controversies. In 1988, he came under investigation by the Texas Board of Examiners of Psychologists for inappropriate behavior with a client and failure to draw a line between the role as therapist and that of an employer.

Debbie Higgins McCall – Bio & Facts About Phil McGraw’s Ex-Wife
Image source

Yet another was controversy was centered around a set of weight loss supplements he sold to buyers who would later regroup and file a class action suit against him claiming that the products were not effective, and they wanted McGraw and his company to pay damages. The matter was later settled out of court with McGraw paying out almost $10 million in settlements.

Around the time of processing his divorce from Debbie Higgins McCall in 1973, he met Robin who he married a few years later and they have remained married to each other since then and have two children together.

Facts about Debbie Higgins McCall 

• Debbie Higgins McCall was not only the lead cheerleader but also the homecoming queen at Shawnee Mission High School.

• She married Phil McGraw in 1970 and they divorced in 1973.

• McCall once ran a liquor store in Kansas City.

• She remarried but unlike McGraw’s second marriage, hers ended in yet another divorce.

• Unfortunately, Debbie Higgins McCall died in 2018, she had stepped far from the limelight since her split with McGraw, thus the cause of her death remains unknown to the public.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *