Mackenzie Phillips on Joy Behar

Mackenzie Phillips appeared on Joy Behar on Thursday, February 24th, to discuss her book, “High On Arrival,” which created a huge firestorm last year and has just been released in paperback with a new chapter.

Joy wanted to know why Mackenzie was “surprised” at the backlash from the revelation that she and her famous father, John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas, had an incestuous “affair.”

“Sure, I expected it to be a little explosive,” Mackenzie said, “but I didn’t expect people to get all whack crazy on me.”

She also said that as she has been doing interviews, the main thing everyone wants to talk about is how she has been treated by her family. “The added chapter also talks so much about the community of incest survivors,” Mackenzie said, “It’s not just that one thing.”

Mackenzie said she did not realize the enormity of the incest statistics in this country and it wasn’t the main reason that she went public, to be a voice for incest survivors, but she learned much more about it from Dr. Drew Pinsky. Mackenzie Phillips also said that one thing she learned from “Dr. Drew” is there is no such thing as consensual incest. The clip was cut short on Joy’s show, not showing the ending where Billy says he respects Mackenzie. Joy and Mackenzie agreed that it was unprofessional of Billy to say that his producer made him do the interview, but ultimately, Joy asked: “do you really care what he thinks anyway?

“I don’t give a flying you-know-what what Billy Bush thinks of me,” Mackenzie replied.

She does care about the way her family shut her out after the book’s initial publication, except for her mother, her ex-husband and her son. Her sister, Chynna Phillips, did support her initially, when they went on Oprah “our relationship basically went back to friendly indifference.”

A clip of Chynna’s appearance on Joy Behar in December 2010 was shown. “When it became public,” Chynna said, “I just did not really know how to deal head-on with everybody knowing and I just felt extremely exposed and vulnerable and it kicked in some anxiety, I have to admit.”

Chynna said, as she did on Oprah, that she believed Mackenzie. Joy wanted to know if that had changed, and Mackenzie said, “No, Chynna’s not the kind of person who would take back that truth,” but Mackenzie admitted that she simply does not know why the family will not speak to her because they aren’t telling her why, they just won’t speak to her. She thinks that perhaps it is more important to them to protect John Phillips’ legacy and a brand:

“We all share a financial interest in my father’s estate, and I think they could very well be right that the estate has been devalued by me telling the truth about my life.”

They discussed what a terrible father John Phillips was and how Michelle Phillips in particular would rather label Mackenzie “crazy” and protect the legacy of John Phillips, “and he’s dead and I’m alive,” Mackenzie said. Keeping secrets, they agreed, protects the perpetrator and further victimizes the victim.

They also talked about the recent case of the Five Browns, where the girls came forward to have their father charged with sexual abuse when they found out he was planning on managing children’s acts.

We don’t know if Dr. Drew is 100% right that there is no such thing as “consensual incest.” It seems to us that incest is when two related parties agree to have a relationship where there is no imbalance of power and no violation of trust involved and these situations do occur. It would not apply in Mackenzie Phillips’ case because there was certainly an imbalance of power aggravated by a heinous violation of trust when her father raped her while she was unconscious.

Even though Mackenzie Phillips feels that she can take anyone on now, we don’t think she should waste her energy on her naysayers. She should just focus on the positive changes her revelations can bring about. She’s 100% right that there can be no change unless people talk about it. One thing she could help do is put a stop to calling sexual abuse situations “incest” because when charges are brought, no one is charged with “incest.” The charges are sexual abuse.