Lead couple to appear on 'Dr. Phil'

By Donna Smith, Black Hills Pioneer | Monday, October 18, 2004

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LEAD - It takes courage to step into the national spotlight to discuss personal problems, and it takes the hope that your experience will help others confront their own problems.

For the past five years, Jonnie and Dennis Bersche have lived with their own private pain. But now, they will have help from television's hottest daytime counseling guru - Dr. Phil.

The "Dr. Phil" show is the second-highest rated talk show on daytime television, finishing slightly behind the Oprah Winfrey show in overall ratings. In a way, "Dr. Phil" is a spin-off of Oprah's show, because Dr. Phil McGraw's television popularity grew from his weekly appearances on the "Oprah" show.

In late August, a producer and camera crew from "Dr. Phil" came to Lead to film the Bersches at home and interview them about the problems they have faced in their relationship. For more than 12 hours, the producer and crew filmed, interviewed and shadowed the Bersches.

Dennis took smoking breaks when he could because he wasn't entirely comfortable being filmed. But when asked why he had agreed to be on such a high-profile national television program, Dennis said: "Because I want to get help for Jonnie. She has a lot of animosity, and it's directed at me. I want her to find some peace with this."

There's an old saying that says, "What you don't know can't hurt you." But for this Lead couple, that saying doesn't ring quite true. Uncovering a secret no one knew for more than 40 years ago has upended their lives.

Dennis and Jonnie Bersche met in Denver nearly seven years ago. She had been married once before and was not in a mood for a new relationship; he was a confirmed bachelor. But the two felt an attraction and began dating. They married nine months later, in August of 1998.

A year later, as they celebrated their first year of marriage, the couple made a trip to visit Jonnie's mother in suburban Detroit. Through a series of unlikely discoveries, the couple came to learn that there was a chance they were related to one another. Dennis' aunt shared an old photo album with the young couple.

In an old prom picture from 1964, Dennis' mother stood next to Jonnie's father. Both Dennis' mother and Jonnie's father went on to marry other people, and Dennis' mom died when he was 17, so there was little chance anyone would believe a long-ago prom date added up to anything. The fact that their parents dated so many years ago would have remained a curious family coincidence except that the couple began thinking about the date of the picture, January 1964, and the date of Dennis' birth, Aug. 28, 1964.

Dennis called Jonnie's father shortly after the discovery of the picture and asked him if there was any chance that Dennis' mother was pregnant at the time the prom picture was taken and, more directly, was there any chance that he was the father of that child. Jonnie's father acknowledged that, yes, there was a chance.

The truth about the pregnancy might have died with Dennis' mother without modern DNA testing that would rule out or prove conclusively that Dennis and Jonnie shared a parent in common.

The DNA tests, done through the Sally Jesse Raphael television show, confirmed the couple's worst fears: The couple learned they share the same biological father. That is when the couple's years of turmoil and relationship ups and downs began.

For Jonnie, her feelings of love for Dennis - the only man she says she had ever known to provide her with a place of emotional refuge in her life - and discovering something that potentially tarnished that relationship was devastating.

This year, Jonnie had finally reached her limit in terms of trying to reconcile her life to the emotional discord caused by knowing the truth from so many years ago. She made contact with the "Dr. Phil" show, and after they had been prescreened by producers, they agreed to appear on the air.

Shortly after the late August on-location filming in Lead, the couple flew to Los Angeles and Paramount Studios, where "Dr. Phil" is filmed. After a whirlwind three-day trip, they returned home with some hope for the future.

Though they only saw the show's star, Dr. Phil, for the period of the taping, the show will continue to support the couple as they work on new directions for their lives and their relationship. Both Jonnie and Dennis were pleased with the way they were treated and with the help they have had and will receive in the future from the program.

The Bersches love each other and are committed to making the best lives they can for one another, they say. Dennis operates his own handyman business, and Jonnie sells nutritional supplements.

The episode of "Dr. Phil" on which the Bersches appear is scheduled this season, but a date has not yet been determined.