Mackenzie Phillips Tells Oprah About Incest, Valerie Bertinelli Surprise Guest

Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Mackenzie Phillips was very compelling but it was very hard to watch because what happened to her was so wrong. To use Mackenzie’s words:

Your father is supposed to protect you. Your father is supposed to protect you, not f*** you.

The horror of incest and a father raping of his own daughter is sickening. But there was a very sweet moment toward the end of the show, a light in the dark interview.

Oprah arranged for Mackenzie’s One Day at a Time sister, Valerie Bertinelli, to drop in as a surprise guest.  Oprah Winfrey reunited the two friends resulting in Phillips and Bertinelli to crying tears of happiness. 

First of all, let me say there is no doubt in my mind that Mackenzie Phillips is telling the truth, despite what some of her critics say.  Phillips has too many details and her eyes are too haunted from years of pain–she has been through hell and back.

Mackenzie says she was 17 or 18 years old the first time she remembers being raped by her father.  When Mackenzie was the star of a hit TV series, One Day at a Time, she was being sexually abused by John Phillips. Mackenzie led a double life, telling no one about her father assaulting her.  According to Mackenzie:

I started very early on in my life compartmentalizing, boxing away difficult memories. And this was the mother of all difficult experiences. It was one of those things where [you think]: ‘Don’t look. Don’t look.’ You tell yourself there’s a video loop in your head of this event, this occurrence, this moment in time. I have spent the last 31 years trying not to look at it.

Mackenzie Phillips was 10 years old when her father taught her how to roll a joint and she was 11 when she did cocaine for the fist time.  When Mackenzie was 14, she won a role in the movie  American Graffiti.  and one week after her 18th birthday, she was arrested for the first time.