September 24, 2009 10:44

Mamas & The Papas singer had 'incestuous relationship with daughter'

Family members are split as to whether claims are true

Photo: PA Photos

The daughter of the Mamas & The Papas singer John Phillips has alleged that she engaged in a 10-year sexual relationship with him.

Mackenzie Phillips revealed details about the alleged relationship – which she says started in 1979, when she was 19 – in a television interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She has also written about it in her autobiography, 'High On Arrival', reports BBC News.

Phillips, who has a history of drug abuse, reportedly writes that her first sexual encounter with her father took place the night before she was due to marry Jeff Sesler, a member of The Rolling Stones' entourage.

"I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father," she writes in the book.

Phillips goes on to state that the relationship ended about a decade later when she became pregnant but was unsure who had fathered the child. She claims to have had an abortion paid for by her father.

Speaking on The Oprah Winfrey Show, she called the relationship "an abuse of power".

Her father's wife at the time of the alleged relationship, Genevieve Waite, disputed Phillips' claims.

In a statement read out by Winfrey, Waite said John Phillips was "incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, of having such a relationship with his own child."

However, Mackenzie Phillips' half-sister Chynna Phillips told US Weekly that she believes the relationship did happen.

"They were both doing drugs together. After long nights of heroin use, she's claiming that she once woke up and that my father was on top of her having sex with her," she said.

"Was he actually raping her? I don't know. Do I believe that they had an incestuous relationship and that it went on for 10 years? Yes."

John Phillips died of heart failure in 2001. He had battled drug addiction throughout his life.