Mackenzie Phillips is looking back on her One Day at a Time years with honesty, humour and a clearer understanding of what was happening behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
The 66-year-old actress, who starred as Julie Cooper on the hit sitcom opposite Valerie Bertinelli, told Fox News Digital<\/a> that one memory from the show\u2019s run might still surprise fans today.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I don\u2019t 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,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n Phillips quickly clarified that Bertinelli has spoken openly about that period herself.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Valerie talks about it openly, so it\u2019s not like I\u2019m pulling her covers or anything,\u201d she said. \u201cThe thing was that I was the, you know, Valerie didn\u2019t have the kind of addiction that I had, she didn\u2019t have addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n The former child star said drugs were also present behind the scenes of the sitcom.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you know, so we would do coke together in the dressing room and stuff,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cI just happened to be the one that got caught. And thank God I got caught, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips and Bertinelli became household names as teenage sisters on One Day at a Time, the sitcom that ran from 1975 to 1984. Phillips played rebellious older sister Julie, while Bertinelli starred as younger sister Barbara Cooper.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n During a 2022 appearance on the Behind the Velvet Rope<\/a> podcast<\/a>, Phillips reflected on why her bond with Bertinelli endured long after their teenage years in Hollywood.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were teenagers and now we\u2019re women of a certain age and we loved each other,\u201d Phillips said at the time. \u201cWe loved the people that we worked with. We were a family.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips acknowledged that her addiction complicated that bond for years.<\/p>\n \u201cYou 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The actress recalled repeatedly reaching out to Bertinelli during earlier periods of sobriety, even when she knew the friendship needed time to heal.<\/p>\n \u201cThere 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\u2019m six months sober, I just drove past the house I want you to know I\u2019m a year sober,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n She said she did not expect Bertinelli to respond right away.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like I was patient because I know I had a lot of repair to do,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cAnd I said you don\u2019t have to call me back I just want you to know I\u2019m thinking of you and I love you and one day the phone rang.\u201d<\/p>\n The friendship remains a meaningful part of Phillips\u2019 life. In April 2025, Phillips marked Bertinelli\u2019s 65th birthday with a tribute on Instagram, writing, \u201cHappy Birthday, Val! Now we\u2019re both 65. I love you. \ufe0f#sisters #odaat #soberaf #family #medicare.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n When asked by Fox News Digital what keeps her grounded today, Phillips pointed to faith and perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat keeps me grounded is my faith and just knowing that how strong and powerful, empowered my history has made me,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n She said people sometimes respond to her life story with pity, but that is not how she sees it.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone was just saying, oh my God, I feel so sorry for everything you went through,\u201d Phillips recalled. \u201cAnd I was like, don\u2019t feel sorry for me because everything I went through, even though it was horrible and difficult, made me the woman I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips said she does not believe she could simply erase parts of her past and remain the same person.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so if I could go back and just take this part out, then I might not be who I am,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I feel very blessed in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n During her conversation with Fox News Digital, Phillips said resilience has become central to how she understands her life.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I think of resilience sort of on a spectrum,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Phillips said she believes she falls into the latter category.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a high, high resilience\u201d she said. \u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 counsellor and manager at Breathe Life Healing Centers.<\/p>\n In a 2019 interview with UCHealth Today<\/a>, Phillips spoke about finding purpose through that work.<\/p>\n \u201cI found a way out and I feel beholden to share the good news,\u201d she told the outlet.<\/p>\n She also said purpose has been key to her continued recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cPurpose is key for me. I have a really strong passion and purpose now. I show up. I\u2019m a really good employee. I\u2019m a hard worker,\u201d Phillips told UCHealth Today.<\/p>\n Phillips has continued acting in recent years, including a role on Netflix\u2019s Orange Is the New Black, while also working in addiction recovery and counselling.<\/p>\n Looking back, she said playing a character struggling with substance abuse never felt triggering.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople would say to me, \u2018Oh my God\u2019 you must have been so triggered,\u201d Phillips recalled on the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast. \u201cI was like no I wasn\u2019t triggered I was inhabiting somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Phillips knows many people continue to connect her most closely to the most painful chapters of her past.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, I was belabouring under a misconception when I stated in my book that the issues with my father were consensual,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cI had been groomed so deeply that I felt like it was my fault that this was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n She said her understanding has changed with time and recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I realise now, because I\u2019ve been drugged and groomed, that there is no consent between a parent and a child, because the power differential is so different,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n Phillips said survivors often feel pressure to protect the very people who harmed them.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I worked hard to sort of protect the perpetrator, which is what survivors do, they protect the perpetrator and then the victim gets vilified,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so I thought of writing another book and calling it Everything I Left Out.\u201d<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in Fox News<\/a> and was reproduced with permission.<\/p>\n