VIDEO: Mackenzie Phillips – Incest Bombshell Causing “Devastating” Family Problems
Sept. 28 2009, Published 2:08 p.m. ET
Mackenzie Phillips told The Early Show Monday that coming forward with the admission she was having sex with her dad, Mamas And The Papas front man John Phillips, over a decade-long period has caused "devastating" family problems.
Amongst the family members who have publicly taken Phillips to task over the truthfulness of the bombshell include her former stepmother Michelle Phillips and half-brother, Tamerlane Phillips.
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"Don't get me wrong, I understand that my family doesn't want this played out nationally, but the people who are saying that I'm lying have known about it for such a long time. They're trying to discredit me in a public way to either protect the brand of The Mamas and the Papas or to protect the memory of my father," the One Day At A Time star said Monday.
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"I absolutely loved my father, but he wasn't a good man," the well-spoken Mackenzie said. "He was deeply flawed."
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Phillips also cited timing as a factor that spurred her decision to make such personal revelations public.
"I wasn't ready to talk about this; my son was a teenager when my father was still alive," she said. "My son is now a 22-year-old young man who is more able to handle something like this. I wasn't thinking about protecting my father. I was thinking about my family, my son, and when he would be prepared.
"And I didn't plan on writing a memoir that included incest, but when I sat down to write this book, I thought am I going to put out another sanitized version of my life?" Phillips said. "Why go there? Why go through writing a memoir about addiction if you can't actually address one of the reasons why the addiction was there in the first place?"
Mackenzie Phillips' new memoir, High On Arrival, is in stores now.
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