Here’s How Mackenzie Phillips Feels About Her Late Dad John Today

John Phillips’ relationship with his daughter, Mackenzie Phillips, reportedly lasted 10 years. Despite all the damage he did to Mazkenzie’s well-being, the “One Day at a Time” actor always seemed to have sympathy for her father. In 2009, when appearing on Oprah, she blamed the drugs and alcohol that her father was addicted to for their incestuous relationship. She shared, “My father was not a bad man. He was kind of a testament to what drugs and alcohol — in huge quantities — can do to a person’s priorities,” she continued, “Their motives. I don’t hate him. I understand that he was a very tortured man, and he sort of passed that torture down to me.” Mackenzie didn’t hate her father back then, and that still stands true today.

In 2023, the actor sat down in an interview with her sibling, Chynna Phillips, and revealed that she had forgiven their father. Mackenzie said that she gets a lot of backlash for forgiving her father despite him allegedly raping and developing a relationship with her, but she had to forgive him for her own sake. She explained, “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.”