A boyhood in a Kansas City car

Phil McGraw, the television personality known as Dr. Phil, grew up in Oklahoma, and the accounts of his youth describe periods of real instability. A Business Insider India list of well-known people who experienced homelessness says that at age 12 he lived in a car in Kansas City with his father, who was interning as a psychologist at the time. The list does not say how long that lasted or how it ended.

A Good Morning America piece gives a different moment. It says that when McGraw was 15, his family was homeless and lived at a YMCA. He earned money on a paper route, and he recalled collecting payments during a sleet storm. His mother objected to him going out, and he answered, as he remembers it, that he was going because everybody was at home. The two accounts differ in details and neither gives a full timeline.

McGraw went on to earn a bachelor's degree, a master's degree and a PhD, and he joined his father's psychology practice in Texas. He has said that he became a therapist but was not suited to the role because of his blunt style. His interest in psychology had first appeared on the football field, when a well-equipped team lost to an opponent with no cleats or jerseys.

His public career grew out of a legal case. His company was hired as jury consultants for Oprah Winfrey's legal team when Texas cattlemen sued her for 11 million dollars after she swore off beef. She won, and he appeared on her show the next day. He became a regular guest on her programme in the 1990s and later launched his own syndicated advice show.