Duvall wasn’t seen on TVs again for almost 15 years after she quit acting and she would have continued to live anonymously in Texas if not for one Phil McGraw – better known as Dr. Phil.
In 2016, he invited Duvall onto his show for a rare TV interview, where she opened up about her career and her mental health struggles after leaving Hollywood behind.
“I’m very sick. I need help,” she told McGraw candidly.
He replied: “Well, that’s why I’m here.”
Unfortunately, Duvall did not appear to receive the support she had hoped for and there was mass backlash to the way McGraw handled the interview. Some critics said he “exploited” Duvall while she was in a “vulnerable” state.
The actress would later say that she regretted agreeing to the interview.
“I found out the kind of person he is the hard way. My mother didn’t like him, either,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “A lot of people, like Dan, said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Shelley.'”
Gilroy, who had been with Duvall for over 20 years by that time, told The New York Times: “It did nothing for her … it just put her on the map as an oddity.”