Mackenzie Phillips Addresses Dad John’s Alleged Rape and Incest

“I was a little girl who had this larger than life [father],” she said at the time. “I adored my father, I waited for him over and over again. I was constantly trying to get his attention, and had this deep, visceral yearning for connection.”

A yearning that, she added, got twisted when combined with the drugs and alcohol she used at the time.

“Over time,” the mom of 35-year-old son Shane (with guitarist Shane Fontayne) explained, “your perception of things as they should be, the world as it is, the rules of society, becomes warped and twisted.”

“Of course I was old enough to know better, and clearly from the way I talk about it in the book I knew better,” she continued. ” I can’t explain this away. It happened.”

But it finally stopped when she became pregnant. “The implications, the reality of that, I had an abortion” she said. “And I never let him touch be again.”

Editor’s note: The headline of this article was updated on Dec. 4, 2023 at 3:37 p.m. PT to clarify the allegations.