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Mackenzie Phillips is looking back on her “One Day at a Time” years with honesty, humor and a clearer understanding of what was happening behind the scenes.
The 66-year-old actress, who starred as Julie Cooper on the hit sitcom opposite Valerie Bertinelli, told Fox News Digital that one memory from the show’s run might still surprise fans today.
“Oh, I don’t know. Oh, okay. So this might surprise you that during lunch break, Valerie and I would drive to my house, get in the pool, drink wine, and snort coke,” Phillips said.
Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli were 15 and 14 years old when they began filming “One Day At a Time.” (Christopher Willard/ABC via Getty Images; CBS/Getty via Images)
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Phillips quickly clarified that Bertinelli has spoken openly about that period herself.
“But Valerie talks about it openly, so it’s not like I’m pulling her covers or anything,” she said. “The thing was that I was the, you know, Valerie didn’t have the kind of addiction that I had, she didn’t have addiction.”
The former child star said drugs were also present behind the scenes of the sitcom.
“And you know, so we would do coke together in the dressing room and stuff,” Phillips said. “I just happened to be the one that got caught. And thank God I got caught, you know?”
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Phillips and Bertinelli became household names as teenage sisters on “One Day at a Time,” the CBS sitcom that ran from 1975 to 1984. Phillips played rebellious older sister Julie, while Bertinelli starred as younger sister Barbara Cooper.
The two were close in age and grew up together under the glare of sitcom fame. Their real-life friendship, however, lasted far longer than the show.
During a 2022 appearance on the “Behind the Velvet Rope” podcast, Phillips reflected on why her bond with Bertinelli endured long after their teenage years in Hollywood.
“We were teenagers and now we’re women of a certain age and we loved each other,” Phillips said at the time. “We loved the people that we worked with. We were a family.”
Phillips acknowledged that her addiction complicated that bond for years.
“You know, and that I guess, you know, that we certainly had our years where I was, you know, out of my mind and Valerie was like okay,” she said.
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The actress recalled repeatedly reaching out to Bertinelli during earlier periods of sobriety, even when she knew the friendship needed time to heal.
“There were times where, you know, I would drive over Coldwater Canyon and I would know where Val and Ed lived and I would just call and leave her a voicemail and say I just drove past the house I want you to know I’m six months sober, I just drove past the house I want you to know I’m a year sober,” Phillips said.
She said she did not expect Bertinelli to respond right away.
MacKenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli star as Julie and Barbara Cooper in the CBS series One Day at a Time, which aired from 1975 to 1984 and followed Ann Romano and her daughters moving back to Indianapolis after a divorce. (CBS/Getty Images)
“It was like I was patient because I know I had a lot of repair to do,” Phillips said. “And I said you don’t have to call me back I just want you to know I’m thinking of you and I love you and one day the phone rang.”
The friendship remains a meaningful part of Phillips’ life. In April 2025, Phillips marked Bertinelli’s 65th birthday with a tribute on Instagram, writing, “Happy Birthday, Val! Now we’re both 65. I love you. ❤️ #sisters #odaat #soberaf #family #medicare 🥳.”
For Phillips, the ability to speak about her past without being consumed by it is part of the resilience she says has carried her forward.
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When asked by Fox News Digital what keeps her grounded today, Phillips pointed to faith and perspective.
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“What keeps me grounded is my faith and just knowing that how strong and powerful, empowered my history has made me,” Phillips said.
She said people sometimes respond to her life story with pity, but that is not how she sees it.
“Someone was just saying, oh my God, I feel so sorry for everything you went through,” Phillips recalled. “And I was like, don’t feel sorry for me because everything I went through, even though it was horrible and difficult, made me the woman I am today.”
Phillips said she does not believe she could simply erase parts of her past and remain the same person.
“And so if I could go back and just take this part out, then I might not be who I am,” she said. “And I feel very blessed in my life.”
The actress has been candid for years about addiction, trauma and recovery. Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips, the late Mamas & the Papas musician, and his first wife, Susan Adams. She wrote about her life in her memoir “High on Arrival” and later explored recovery in “Hopeful Healing.”
During her conversation with Fox News Digital, Phillips said resilience has become central to how she understands her life.
“I mean, I think of resilience sort of on a spectrum,” she said.
Phillips said she believes she falls into the latter category.
“I have a high, high resilience” she said. “You know, the love of my son, my family, my sisters, even though that relationship was very difficult for a long time, I just believe, I have a strong faith, and, I mean, I had no choice. Be resilient or die.”
Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli have remained close friends decades after co-starring on “One Day at a Time.” (CBS/Getty Images)
Phillips has also used her recovery to help others. In addition to acting, she has worked in the addiction and recovery field, including as a counselor and manager at Breathe Life Healing Centers.
In a 2019 interview with UCHealth Today, Phillips spoke about finding purpose through that work.
“I found a way out and I feel beholden to share the good news,” she told the outlet.
She also said purpose has been key to her continued recovery.
“Purpose is key for me. I have a really strong passion and purpose now. I show up. I’m a really good employee. I’m a hard worker,” Phillips told UCHealth Today.
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Phillips has continued acting in recent years, including a role on Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” while also working in addiction recovery and counseling.
Looking back, she said playing a character struggling with substance abuse never felt triggering.
“People would say to me, ‘Oh my God’ you must have been so triggered,” Phillips recalled on the “Behind the Velvet Rope” podcast. “I was like no I wasn’t triggered I was inhabiting somebody else.”
Still, Phillips knows many people continue to connect her most closely to the most painful chapters of her past.
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Mackenzie Phillips poses with her father, John Phillips. (Getty Images)
When asked by Fox News Digital what people still get wrong about her story, Phillips pointed to the way her relationship with her father has sometimes been described.
“First of all, I was belaboring under a misconception when I stated in my book that the issues with my father were consensual,” Phillips said. “I had been groomed so deeply that I felt like it was my fault that this was happening.”
She said her understanding has changed with time and recovery.
“When I realize now, because I’ve been drugged and groomed, that there is no consent between a parent and a child, because the power differential is so different,” Phillips said.
Phillips said survivors often feel pressure to protect the very people who harmed them.
“And I worked hard to sort of protect the perpetrator, which is what survivors do, they protect the perpetrator and then the victim gets vilified,” she said. “And so I thought of writing another book and calling it Everything I Left Out.”
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