Dr. Phil On "The Girl In The Closet": "She learned to speak by listening to DJs on the radio"

There's no doubt that Dr. Phil has had many notable moments on his daytime show over the last 15-plus years.

But when we asked him to pick just a few to look back on, one interview that stood out in his mind was with Lauren, a young girl who was kept in a closet by her mother and stepfather from 2 to 8 years old.

"This was a precious child that was raised in a closet," Dr. Phil tells Rach. "They locked her in that closet, kept her there through her entire childhood."

"And she learned to speak because they put a radio outside the door to cover the noise of her being in there, in case somebody came in," he says. "She learned to speak by listening to the DJs on the radio."

"Other than that," he continues, "she ate paint off the wall [and] linoleum off the floor."

After having Lauren on his show, Dr. Phil was in Texas -- where Lauren is from -- working on another story.

It was there where he met a highway patrolman who reminded him just how impactful his show could be.

"[The highway patrolman's] wife was an occupational therapist, and I found out that there was a whole network of occupational therapists throughout Texas that had worked with [Lauren] when she was rescued," the talk show host recalls. "And they all watched the show together."

"They were all on their computers watching that show across Texas," he goes on.

"And when [Lauren] smiled on the show for the first time, a cheer went up across the state of Texas."

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