Mackenzie Phillips would likely be considered by many in today’s times as a ‘nepobaby.’
Is Mackenzie Phillips related to Mamas and the Papas?
She was born into music royalty — her father was The Mamas & The Papas frontman John (he had five children — Mackenzie, Jeffrey, Chynna, Bijou and Tamerlane — to three different women) and her mother was his first wife, heiress Susan Adams.
However the same man who brought her into the world was also the one who fueled her drug addiction and who she claimed raped her as a teen before it turned into a 10-year incestuous affair — a disturbing bombshell that shocked the world and her family.
When her drug life started
Mackenzie said her father taught her to roll joints at 10 and she tried cocaine for the first time at 11.
Her life began to spiral out of control because of her substance abuse, and she has previously spoken out about how she and her father, John, would do drugs together.
The 10-year incestuous relationship
In her 2009 memoir, High On Arrival, Mackenzie claimed that she and John had a 10-year incestuous relationship, a bombshell confession that not only rocked the public — but divided her family.
Recently, the 64-year-old American Graffiti star – who married three times – opened up in a rare interview with her sister, Chynna, revealing how she has forgiven her father — but it did not mean she ‘co-sign[ed] or agree[d] with what I’m forgiving… him for.’
The siblings spoke out about John’s ‘dark’ side and how he was a ‘complex’ person, despite Chynna declaring her father was also ‘one of my favorite individuals in the whole wide world.
Why did Mackenzie Phillips leave One Day at a Time?
During her interview with Chynna, she also reflected on when she was fired from One Day At A Time.
‘My addiction was so powerful and so out of control that when I was fired for the second time from the show for drug use, I thought, “Ah screw them, you know, I’ll get my next job in a minute,” that did not happen. And I became basically unhirable for a long, long time,’ Mackenzie said.
‘Once I got sober for the first time I realized that I had to put my pride in my back pocket and not go, “Well I was on the biggest TV show all time,” because there were many like me who refused to audition and I just said you know what I’m putting that behind me, and I went out and I pounded the pavement and I auditioned against a bunch of other young women and I started booking gigs and I started booking jobs.
‘I was sort of in episodic hell for a long time and then the Disney Channel show [So Weird] came along… it was a great show, it was so much fun.’
She appeared in 65 episodes of So Weird from 1999 to 2001, but didn’t land another major role again until Orange Is The New Black (2018) and the One Day At A Time reboot (2017-2020).
In 2008, Mackenzie pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine after she was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport earlier that year.
What is Mackenzie Phillips doing now?
Having faced years of battling addiction, Mackenzie has been able to overcome her demons and has been able to stay sober, while also balancing her careers in acting and drug abuse counselling.
