Mackenzie Phillips "Forgives" Dad John’s Alleged Rape & Incest

Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault and incest. 

In the introduction to her 2009 memoir, Mackenzie Phillips called her late father, John Phillips, the "great and terrible sun" around which everyone else in his world, from family members to drug dealers, orbited. All drawn, she wrote, to his "fierce, inspiring, damaging light."

That could have meant so many things, the Mamas & the Papas singer having led an infamously self-destructive life that ended in 2001 when he died of heart failure at 65. "Occasionally I have a drink," John told Howard Stern in 1994, two years after undoing a liver transplant necessitated by decades of drug and alcohol abuse.

Mackenzie had also been candid about her own struggles, including the drug problem that led to her being fired from the hit sitcom One Day at a Time in 1980. But that hardly prepared anyone who opened her book for what was inside.

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The actress alleged in her book High on Arrival that, when she was 18, she woke from a drug-induced blackout one night and her father was having sex with her. The incest continued for 10 years, she wrote, even after she married her first husband at 19คำพูดจาก เล่นฟรี เกมใหม่ล่าสุด. It only ended when she got pregnant and had an abortion, fearing she was carrying her father's child.

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Those were explosive allegations 14 years ago and time hasn't made them any less disturbing to contemplate. 

Mackenzie said recently, however, that she has chosen forgiveness, though the now-64-year-old also acknowledged that might be difficult to understand for those who have remained (or are newly) horrified on her behalf.

"I get a lot of criticism, and a lot of trolling online, for having forgiveness in my heart," she said on the Nov. 29 installment of half-sister Chynna Phillips' YouTube series California Preachin'. "Forgiveness, because forgiving is for me, not for the other person. And forgiving doesn't mean I cosign or agree with what I'm forgiving him for."

The situation is "very, very complicated," Mackenzie added. "And yet, I am at peace."

Read on for the history behind Mackenzie's shocking accusations:

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For free, confidential help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit rainn.org.