Mackenzie Phillips is a famous television actress that is most well known for her time
on the hit sitcom One Day at a Time.
Besides being known for her acting roles, Mackenzie was also known as the daughter of
the man who founded the legendary pop group the Mamas & the Papas, John Phillips.
After her father’s death, Mackenzie came forward with the shocking story that she and
him had been involved in a decade-long incestuous relationship that tragically ended in abortion.
Join Facts Verse as we explore why Mackenzie Phillips’ incestuous relationship is just
heartbreaking.
Most audience members will likely recognize Mackenzie Phillips best for her time on the
sitcom One Day at a Time, which was a major hit with television audiences during the 1970s
and the 1980s.
In addition to her work on One Day at a Time, Mackenzie also memorably appeared in the film
American Graffiti.
However, people nowadays are starting to associate the television actress with something much
more horrifying, and that is the incestuous relationship that she claims to have shared
for a whole decade with her father.
Mackenzie’s father was John Phillips, the founder of the pop music group the Mamas & the
Papas.
Mackenzie came forward with her account of the relationship soon after her father’s
death in 2001.
According to Mackenzie, her father initiated the relationship when she was just barely
of age.
At the time, Mackenzie was getting ready to marry the man that was to become her first
husband, John Sessler.
Mackenzie has been no stranger to substance abuse issues throughout her life, and these
had already begun by the time that her father initiated the incestuous relationship.
According to Mackenzie, her father had taken umbrage with the fact that she was going to
get married and came before the wedding night with a bunch of illegal substances.
Mackenzie ended up passing out and woke up to the shocking revelation that her father
was on top of her.
After the initial incident, Mackenzie went forward with her marriage to John Sessler
and didn’t bring up the event involving her father again for many months.
Finally, she decided that it was time to confront her father about it, and she was devastated
by his response.
According to Mackenzie, her father had found nothing wrong with the fact that he had “made
love” to his daughter, regardless of whether or not she was passed out in a drug stupor.
Her father’s strange reaction to her cries for answers was enough to keep Mackenzie quiet
for the many years that followed, up until her recent confession.
According to Mackenzie, her father’s denial of how wrong the initial deed had been was
enough to make her feel totally alone.
Mackenzie felt that her father had control over her, and he would utilize this control
once again later on down the line.
Although Mackenzie had initially hoped that the incestuous incident involving her father
had been a one-and-done thing, he instigated further romantic encounters a few years into
her relationship with her first husband.
Because of this, Mackenzie is one of the few people that can lay claim to the accomplishment
of having an affair with their own father.
Although the initial encounter between Mackenzie and her father certainly hadn’t been consensual,
the remaining encounters that were supposed to have occurred between the two were.
However, it’s not hard to imagine that Mackenzie certainly wasn’t in the right mind when
all of this business was occurring.
She felt largely helpless in the proceedings, due both to the initial attack that had initiated
the relationship and to the substance abuse demons her father was perpetuating to keep
her under his control.
Eventually, John invited his daughter to join him on tour as part of his new lineup for
the Mamas & the Papas.
For whatever reason, Mackenzie ended up accepting this invitation.
It was during this period that the incestuous relationship came to a head, with the two
partaking in illegal substances many nights during the tour and waking up to find that
they were in bed together.
While the events were likely a surprise to Mackenzie, keeping his daughter in a drug-induced
stupor may have been John’s entire purpose for inviting her into the new lineup of the
group.
Although Mackenzie was never happy in the incestuous relationship with her father, it
continued for a decade before she gained the courage to do anything about it.
The breaking point came when she became pregnant and had no way of knowing whether or not the
child she was carrying was the product of incest or a healthy child that had been conceived
from the seed of her actual husband.
Mackenzie was left with the difficult choice of carrying the child or getting an abortion.
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After Mackenzie Phillips realized that she was possibly pregnant with the child of her
father, she turned to him for help.
John Phillips paid for his daughter’s abortion, believing that the child was most likely his.
Mackenzie was so disturbed by the series of events that it forced her to wake up from
the drug-induced stupor that her father had been keeping her in.
She made the decision right then and there to break all contact with her father, which
was a promise that she kept up until just before his death.
After her father’s passing, she came out with the story of their relationship.
The morning that Mackenzie woke up to find that she was having sex with her father, she
fell into a state of shock that lasted for a decade.
According to Mackenzie, she compartmentalized the incident and refused to come to terms
with it, which only gave her father that much more control.
Coming out with the story in the years since her father’s death has helped Mackenzie
regain much of the control that she lost during that decade, though many of her family members
have refused to believe her.
While some of Mackenzie’s family members believe her account of the events that went
down between her and her father over that fateful decade, there are many that take umbrage
with Mackenzie’s version of the truth.
These detractors are quick to point out the fact that Mackenzie was addicted to drugs
during the entirety of this time period.
As well, there are many that say that Mackenzie’s account of John is nothing like the man that
they knew, although few were likely closer to the man than Mackenzie was.
Michelle Phillips was Mackenzie’s stepmother and one of John’s bandmates in the original
lineup of the Mamas & the Papas.
According to Michelle, Mackenzie is simply jealous of her fellow siblings that didn’t
become drug addicts.
Her jealousy caused her to make up stories about her father in an attempt to create a
divide between them.
Mackenzie’s siblings are divided on the issue of whether or not they believer their
sister’s account of the incestuous relationship that supposedly went down between her and
their father.
One of Mackenzie’s siblings is Bijou Phillips, a notable entertainer in her own right.
Bijou is younger than Mackenzie and blames Mackenzie for destroying her relationship
with her father shortly before his death.
According to Bijou, she had an idyllic life with her father before Mackenzie’s stories
of incest and molestation drove her away from him.
Bijou lived a privileged existence before being driven away from her father at the age
of 13 and started following in her older sister’s footsteps by doing drugs and partying.
Thankfully, Bijou was able to turn her life around.
However, it’s still uncertain whether she’s right to dismiss the stories of her sister.
Like Mackenzie, Bijou made up with her father shortly before his death in 2001.
Besides Bijou, another one of Mackenzie’s siblings is Chynna Phillips.
Like Bijou, Chynna is a musician.
While Bijou is best known as a solo artist, Chynna is best known as part of the band,
Wilson Phillips.
Chynna doesn’t share Bijou’s refusal to believe her sister’s stories of incest.
According to Chynna, the stories seem believable to her and she doesn’t understand why Mackenzie
would’ve made them up.
As well, she believes the stories are so absurd that she couldn’t have made them up if she
wanted to.
Instead, she believes that her father likely did what Mackenzie says that he did.
Besides immediate family members, there have also been accounts from other people with
opinions on whether or not Mackenzie’s story was valid.
Surprisingly, Denny Doherty apparently substantiated Mackenzie’s accounts in a personal confession
to his own daughter shortly before his passing.
Denny’s daughter is Jessica Woods, and he has shared that her father confessed to her
that he was aware of the incestuous relationship that his bandmate had initiated with his own
daughter and was shocked and appalled by it.
Apparently, he had quite a bit of guilt in his later years about not doing anything to
put an end to it.
Mackenzie isn’t too worried about detractors who say that she has made the incestuous relationship
that she shared with her father up.
According to her, she’d rather there be some doubt about it than to have to put a
bunch of people in the line of fire with questioning.
She believes what’s in the past is in the past, and opening up about the events that
occurred during the decade in which she was involved with her father has allowed her to
let go of them.
The entertainment industry has certainly been a breeding ground for odd relationships, but
the incestuous relationship between Mackenzie Phillips and her father may take the cake
for many.
Comment down below to share if you were shocked by this story, or if you think you’ll be
deleting the Mamas & the Papas from your Spotify playlists!
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