Former employee accuses Dr. Phil of "deeply hurtful" anti-gay discrimination

The former publicist of Phil McGraw, known publicly as Dr. Phil, is suing the television personality for anti-gay discrimination, among other alleged indiscretions,

Jerry Sharell started working for the former talk show host in 2016 and became president of publicity in 2019. He claims in the lawsuit that McGraw began treating him differently due to his sexuality after he left CBS to launch his own company, Merit Street Media, in 2023.

According to Sharell, Merit Street Media partnered with the Christian company Trinity Broadcasting Network, and employees had to sign a statement “declaring their devotion to Jesus.” While Sharell was given the same role he held at CBS, he believes the company’s religious bent is what led McGraw to ask him to remain in Los Angeles, despite the rest of the employees relocating to Texas.

“The realization that Defendant McGraw did not want [Sharell] present in the building or attending meetings with TBN executives who would be partnering with Merit Street Media was both deeply hurtful and confusing,” the lawsuit states, according to USA Today.

Sharell also claims he endured anti-gay mistreatment by both McGraw and other employees during his monthly visits to the office, including McGraw allegedly calling him “gayer than a fruit basket” in 2025 and a tech employee seeing a photo of Sharell and saying, “there’s too many of THEM around here. And it’s evil.”

The lawsuit also describes “uncomfortable” and “disturbing” prayer during staff meetings, calling it “shocking” since Sharell had never previously experienced McGraw as particularly religious.

Sharell has also accused McGraw of wrongful termination and failing to pay his wages on time, claiming his “sexual orientation was a substantial motivating reason.”

In 2025, Merit Street Media became Envoy, and, according to Sharell, he continued to do the same job but was relegated to independent contractor status rather than salaried status.

The suit accuses the company of repeatedly paying him late and claims he discovered that among those who became independent contractors, he “suffered the highest reduction in salary (30%) and resulting financial consequences including self-employment taxes, cessation of his 401 (k), and a substantial increase in health insurance coverage expenses.”

In March 2026, Sharell claims he was the only employee placed on “hiatus” due to alleged production slowdowns, though he maintains no such slowdown occurred.

McGraw’s attorney, Chip Babcock, denied the allegations in a statement. “Jerry Sharell was put on hiatus over the summer as is common in this industry especially with a media start up,” he said. “He was not fired for any reason and certainly not because of his sexual orientation.”

“These allegations against Envoy and Dr. Phil are made up out of whole cloth as he has a 25 years history of treating the LGBTQ+ communities with dignity and respect including standing up for his guests who were attacked because of their sexual preferences. This lawsuit is really an effort to avoid a pending arbitration to which Sharell contractually agreed, which he has now violated in a number of ways. The company and Dr. Phil will vigorously defend these claims.”

McGraw has also been embroiled in financial controversies over his new companies, though he has denied any wrongdoing.

In May 2025, the president tapped McGraw to serve on his new “religious liberty commission” at the Department of Justice to investigate and present strategies to eliminate “threats to domestic religious liberty.”

And in 2022, McGraw invited several anti-transgender activists to go on his show so that he could present “both sides of the gender pronoun debate.” The episode featured anti-trans internet troll and The Daily Wire writer Matt Walsh as a guest.

Here’s the part on Dr Phil where I demonstrate that the “gender experts” cannot even define the word woman or explain what they mean when they use it

pic.twitter.com/7CGcaEUlnj

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 19, 2022