Who is Mackenzie Phillips's mother? All about Susan Adams as the singer opens up on incestuous relationship with her father

One Day at a Time actress Mackenzie Phillips got candid about her 10-year-long incestuous relationship with her father and founder of the Mamas & the Papas band, John Phillips in a YouTube interview. In a conversation with her half-sister and YouTuber Chynna Phillips Baldwin, the singer detailed her father’s “very, very dark side.” She also addressed why she chose to forgive her father for his actions.

Trigger Warning: The following article details incest. Reader's discretion is advised.

For those unversed, Mackenzie Phillips was born on November 10, 1959, to John Phillips and Susan Adams in Alexandria, Virginia.

On November 30, Mackenzie sat down for an interview with her half-sister Chynna Phillips Baldwin where the former revealed that her father was a “genius” but with a “dark” side. She also added:

“He had a very dark side. He was so dark, and you just didn’t know who you were going to get, right? It was very unpredictable.”

Mackenzie admitted in her 2009 memoir High on Arrival that her father r*ped her on the night she married Jeff Sessler. She also revealed that as she battled drug addiction, the s*x with her father became consensual.

Speaking about why she chose to forgive her father for his actions, who died of heart failure in March 2001, she said in the YouTube interview:

“Forgiving is for me, not the other person. And forgiving doesn’t mean that I co-sign or agree with what I’m forgiving you for, or him for. It’s very complicated. It’s very, very complicated. And yet, I am at peace.”

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Mackenzie Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips and Susan Adams

Mackenzie captured the audience’s attention at the young age of 12 by starring in George Lucas’ American Graffiti. She gained mainstream stardom when she was cast in the 1975 sitcom One Day at a Time. Since then, she has appeared in various other shows including Baretta and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Mackenzie Phillips, a native of Virginia, revealed in her book Hopeful Healing: Essays on Managing Recovery and Surviving Addiction that her mother was the personal secretary of Robert McNamara, the former United States Secretary of Defense.

She also revealed in her book that her mother battled dementia, which was a struggle to cope with. She noted that seeing her mother go from a Pentagon employee to an elderly woman living in an assisted-living home was difficult. She also added:

“Was it appropriate for me to say to my eighty-year-old mother who had dementia and wore diapers, "I'm so disappointed that you're not who you used to be. I need my mommy?" No, saying that wasn't going to help.”

Discussing her mother’s struggle with alcohol addiction, Mackenzie Phillips revealed that Susan was 18 years sober at the time of her passing.

Mackenzie also shared in the past that her mother’s passing was a “sweet” kind of mourning. She described Susan Adams’ love as powerful and “with so little expectation of devotion that devotion came naturally.” She also narrated an unexpected humorous moment that took place when her mother passed. She revealed that Adams was accompanied by her cat Bubbles, moments before her passing while “loaded on morphine.” She reportedly said on her deathbed:

“You know, I never liked that f**king cat. The one thing I like about that cat – that cat knows this is bulls**t.”

Years after her parents’ death, Mackenzie Phillips has been working as a drug rehab counselor at the Pasadena Recovery Center.