Phillips Family’s Controversies Over the Years: Incest Allegations, Addiction Struggles and More
The Phillips family’s history is full of dark chapters, from abuse allegations to drug and alcohol addiction.
Mackenzie Phillips and Chynna Phillips, who are both daughters of the Mamas & the Papas singer John Phillips, laughed about being labeled one of the “most dysfunctional” families in Hollywood during a December 2023 conversation shared via Chynna’s YouTube channel.
While speaking about their father, who died at age 65 in 2001, Mackenzie said John was “something else” while Chynna spoke about his dark side.
“Obviously he's an amazing songwriter and, you know I loved his laugh, and yet there was this whole other side to Dad that was, I mean, kind of, like a monster,” Chynna said. "He was so dark, and you just didn't know who you were going to get. It was very unpredictable."
In addition to Chynna, whose mother is Michelle Phillips, and Mackenzie, whose mother is Susan Stuart Adams, John shared son Jeffrey Phillips with Adams, and daughter Bijou Phillips and son Tamerlane Phillips with Genevieve Waite.
Keep scrolling for a look at the Phillips family’s controversies over the years:
John Phillips' Addiction Struggles
John struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for much of his life. In Keith Richards’ 2010 memoir, Life, the Rolling Stones musician recalled introducing John to heroin in the 1970s.
“I always felt responsible for John because I turned him on to smack. Within a week, he’s got a pharmacy under control, and he’s become a dealer. I’ve never seen a guy become a junkie that quick,” Richards wrote.
John’s drug and alcohol use took a toll on his health, and in 1992, he underwent liver transplant surgery. Two years later, he told Howard Stern during a 1994 interview that he still drank “occasionally.”
Both Chynna and Mackenzie have opened up about being exposed to drugs at a young age due to their father’s addiction.
In her 2017 book, Hopeful Healing: Essays on Managing Recovery and Surviving Addiction, Mackenzie recalled “being 16 or 17 and knocking on the bathroom door, looking for my dad, and hearing him say, ‘Not now, darling, Daddy’s shooting up.’”
She added that the occurrence was “so normal that it didn’t even faze me.”
Mackenzie Phillips' Drug Abuse and Arrest
Mackenzie has had her own struggles with addiction. In Hopeful Healing, she admitted to using drugs while pregnant with her son, Shane, whom she welcomed in 1987 with ex-husband Shane Fontayne.
“I shot up cocaine while pregnant with my son,” Mackenzie wrote. “The horror of my actions in sober retrospect is something that I deal with to this day.”
The One Day at a Time alum was arrested in 2008 on charges of possession of cocaine and heroin as she went through an airport security screening. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a drug rehabilitation program.
During a 2019 interview with Variety, Mackenzie discussed her sobriety and “feeling blessed” that Shane didn’t inherit her addiction issues.
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“Now I have this incredible opportunity to continue to watch my son navigate the planet as a young man who doesn’t have an addiction problem — which is shocking," she said. "Sometimes shape-shifting monsters like addiction do magical things like skip a generation."
Mackenzie Phillips' Incest Allegations
In her 2009 memoir, High on Arrival, Mackenzie alleged that at age 19, she woke up one night from a drug-induced blackout to find her father raping her. She claimed that she and John went on to have a 10-year consensual relationship.
"It didn't happen every day, it didn't happen every week, but it certainly happened and it happened enough times," Mackenzie said during an ABC interview at the time.
Mackenzie claimed that the relationship ended when she became pregnant. Fearing that the baby could be her father’s, she had an abortion and “never let him touch me again.”
The revelation caused tension in the Phillips’ family. John’s second wife, Michelle, publicly slammed the claims, telling The Hollywood Reporter that Mackenzie had “a lot of mental illness” and “had a needle stuck up her arm for 35 years.”
She added: "Mackenzie is jealous of her siblings, who have accomplished a lot and did not become drug addicts.”
Mackenzie’s sister Bijou released a statement noting that Mackenzie first told her about the alleged abuse when she was a teenager, but claimed Mackenzie later walked back the allegation.
“When I was 13, Mackenzie told me that she had a consensual sexual relationship with our father. This news was confusing and scary, as I lived alone with my father since I was 3, I didn't know what to believe and it didn’t help that shortly thereafter Mackenzie told me it didn’t happen,” Bijou’s statement read. “I understand Mackenzie’s need to come clean with a history she feels will help others, but it’s devastating to have the world watch as we try and mend broken fences, especially when the man in question isn’t here to defend himself.”
Chynna, meanwhile, has stated that she believes Mackenzie’s story.
“I do know there was a consensual relationship between my father and sister,” she said during a 2009 ABC appearance. “I’ve known about that for 12 years.”
Chynna Phillips' and Billy Baldwin's Separation
Chynna filed for divorce from husband Billy Baldwin in 2010 after 15 years of marriage. She withdrew the papers days later and the pair reconciled. In June of that year, Chynna exclusively told Us Weekly that the separation came down to knowing “we deserve more from our marriage.”
She continued: “It became so about the children and so about my business, his business, and I missed him. I really missed him.”
Noting that “it would have been the biggest mistake of [her] life” to divorce Baldwin, Chynna said that her husband is “very much like a father figure” to her.
“In some ways that really works and some ways it doesn’t, so that was something we had to work on,” she explained. “Like, he’s my husband, not my daddy, you know? We needed to be on a little more equal plane.”
Chynna and Baldwin share daughters Jameson and Brooke, born in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and son Vance, born in 2001. In January 2024, Chynna revealed that she and Baldwin had temporarily “separated for six months” but did not specify when the split occurred.
“I’ve been with Billy for 32 years, and we have an awesome marriage, but we definitely had the hardest couple years of our lives,” she admitted in a YouTube livestream. “I think it’s because I just took the deep dive into Jesus, and I think he didn’t quite know what to do with that.”
Bijou Phillips Accused of Harassing Costar Daniel Franzese
Franzese took to Facebook in November 2017 to claim that Bijou “harassed” him throughout “the entire shoot” of their 2001 film, Bully.
“She body shamed me and ridiculed me about my sexuality and physically assaulted me,” Franzese claimed. “I was scared and closeted and feared for my job. It started with a lot of eye rolling whenever we spoke but escalated when we did a cast shoot for the poster. As we were shooting she kept loudly saying ‘Are you gay?!’ and laughing while the producers and photographer did nothing to stop her.”
Bijou subsequently apologized via a statement to TMZ.
“I don't remember that time well, those years are a blur. I was a teenager and reckless in my behavior. I know Daniel to be a trustworthy and honest person, and to find out through social media that I was not the friend I thought I was to him made me so sad,” Bijou said. “I am so mortified by this behavior and have contacted Daniel and apologized to him privately. I am not and never have been homophobic. I have nothing but love for the LGBTQ community and Daniel.”
Franzese then noted via X that he’d forgiven Bijou “because I don’t know her private story.”
Danny Masterson's Sexual Assault Case
Bijou’s estranged husband Danny Masterson’s sexual assault trial is another dark spot in the family’s history.
In 2017, three women came forward with sexual assault allegations against the That ‘70s Show alum, which he denied. Masterson was charged with three counts of rape in June 2020 after a three-year investigation. He pleaded not guilty.
Hollywood’s Sexual Misconduct Scandals
The actor was convicted on two of three counts of forcible rape in May 2023 and was subsequently sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
Bijou, who married Masterson in 2011 and welcomed daughter Fianna with him in 2014, stood by her husband’s side throughout the trial. When the guilty verdict was read, she let out a “pained cry” and “began sobbing,” the L.A. Times reported. Bijou filed for divorce in September 2023, two months after Masterson’s sentencing.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
