Phil McGraw

The Making of Dr. Phil is an unauthorized biography by Sophia Dembling, a reporter from The Dallas Morning News, and Lisa Gutierrez, a reporter from The Kansas City Star. The book probes McGraw's history, with interviews of his childhood friends and former classmates. The book received no promotional help from McGraw or his associates.

McGraw married his first wife, an ex-cheerleader and homecoming queen named Debbie Higgins McCall, in 1970, when he was 20 years old. According to her, McGraw was domineering and would not allow her to participate in the family business. She claimed that she was confined to domestic duties and instructed to begin lifting weights to improve her bustline.During the process of annulling the marriage in 1973, McGraw met and began dating Robin Jo Jameson, whom he married in 1976. The couple have two children together, Jay McGraw and Jordan McGraw.McGraw is also a private pilot, with an instrument rating, flying single-engine airplanes. McGraw has identified himself as a Christian.

McGraw was born in Vinita, Oklahoma, on September 1, 1950, the son of Joseph J. McGraw Jr. and his wife, Anne Geraldine "Jerry" (née Stevens). He grew up with two older sisters, Deana and Donna, and younger sister Brenda in the oilfields of North Texas where his father was an equipment supplier. McGraw moved to Kansas with his father as his father pursued his lifelong goal of becoming a psychologist. There he attended Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, Kansas. He played linebacker on the high school football team and in 1968 earned a football scholarship to the University of Tulsa, where he played middle linebacker under coach Glenn Dobbs. He later transferred to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. McGraw graduated in 1975 from Midwestern State University with a B.A. in psychology. He went on to earn an M.A. in experimental psychology in 1976, and a Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology in 1979 at the University of North Texas, where his dissertation was titled "Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Psychological Intervention." He did a year of post-doctoral training in Forensic Psychology from the Wilmington Institute. McGraw's PhD advisor was Dr. Frank Lawlis, who later became the primary contributing psychologist for the Dr. Phil television show.