Laura Mackenzie Phillips

Mackenzie Phillips, 2009.

Laura Mackenzie Phillips (born November 10, 1959) is an American actress. Her best-known roles include Carol Morrison in the film American Graffiti, Julie Mora Cooper Horvath on the sitcom One Day at a Time, and Molly Phillips on Disney Channel’s supernatural series So Weird.

Arrest

Phillips gained stardom in the 1970s playing teenager Julie Cooper (when the character got married, her married name was Horvath) on the long-running television show One Day at a Time, for which she earned $50,000 (equal to $280,516.73 today) a week. During the show's third season in 1977, Phillips was arrested for disorderly conduct. Because of her drug and alcohol abuse, Phillips began arriving late and was even incoherent for rehearsals. The producers ordered her to take a six-week break to overcome her addiction but were ultimately forced to fire her in 1980.

Overdoses

After two near-fatal overdoses, Phillips entered Fair Oaks Hospital voluntarily for treatment. In 1981, the producers of One Day at a Time invited her back to the show. However, in 1982, Phillips relapsed into cocaine use and the following year, she collapsed on the show's set. After refusing to take a drug test, she was fired permanently, and her character written out of the series. In 1992, Philips entered a drug rehab program for nine months.

Allegations Against Father

In September 2009, Phillips's memoir High on Arrival was released, after which she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for an hour-long interview. She told Winfrey that she first tried cocaine when she was 11 years old and that her father had given her drugs and injected her with cocaine. During the interview, Phillips read excerpts from her book. She said that at the age of 19, on the night before her first wedding in 1979, "I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father," and that when she confronted her father months later, asking why he had raped her, her father simply replied, "Raped you? Don't you mean we made love?" Phillips told Oprah Winfrey of having a "consensual" sexual relationship with her father, describing her participation as "sort of Stockholm syndrome, where you begin to love your captor." However, she has also described the initial incident as a rape and has said, "No matter what kind of incest, it is an abuse of power ... a betrayal of trust."

The alleged abuse ended after Phillips conceived a child by her father and subsequently had an abortion, for which her father paid.

Genevieve Waite, John's third wife, denies the allegations, saying they were inconsistent with his character. Michelle Phillips, John's second wife, also stated that she had "every reason to believe Mackenzie's account is untrue." However, Chynna Phillips, Mackenzie's half-sister and Michelle Phillips's daughter, stated that she believed Mackenzie's claims and that Mackenzie first told her about the relationship during a phone conversation in 1997, approximately 11 years after the supposed relationship had ended. Jessica Woods, daughter of Denny Doherty, said that her father had told her that he knew "the awful truth" and that he was "horrified at what John had done."

This article contains information imported from the English Wikipedia. In most cases the page history will have details. If you need information on the importation and have difficulty obtaining it please contact the site administrators.

Wikipedia shows a strong woke bias. Text copied over from Wikipedia can be corrected and improved.