Woody Allen’s Wife Soon-Yi Breaks Her Silence to Defend Her Husband
By Ryan General
After decades of media silence, Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of Woody Allen, spoke in length surrounding her early life with adopted mother Mia Farrow and about the allegations that Allen molested his daughter Dylan Farrow.
In an interview published by New York Magazine on Sunday, Previn said Dylan Farrow was merely spreading lies about Allen while taking advantage of the recent conversation about sexual harassment in Hollywood.
Previn, 47, said she is now speaking out to defend Allen, 82, after claims that her husband had sexually abused Dylan when she was a child had resurfaced.
“I was never interested in writing a ‘Mommie Dearest,’ getting even with Mia — none of that,” Previn was quoted as saying. “But what’s happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust. [Mia] has taken advantage of the #MeToo movement and paraded Dylan as a victim. And a whole new generation is hearing about it when they shouldn’t.”
Dylan first made her accusations after Allen and Mia Farrow split in 1992. While a Connecticut prosecutor said then that there was probable cause for a criminal case, Allen was never charged.
She would make her claims public in 2014, and last year again when she asked in an op-ed why Allen had been spared in the Hollywood backlash in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
When Previn was 6 years old, Previn was adopted by Mia Farrow and her then-husband Andre Previn from South Korea. She was about 11 when Mia and Andre divorced and the actress began seeing Allen.
Her own romantic relationship with Allen reportedly started when she was 21. At this time, Allen was still in a relationship with Farrow.
In the interview, Previn recalled an unhappy childhood in New York, claiming that Farrow had clear favorites among her children. She further alleged that her adoptive mother was neglectful and physically and verbally abusive.
According to Previn, Farrow would leave the children alone through the night when they were still small, and throw wooden alphabet blocks at her when she made mistakes while learning English.
Farrow would also allegedly hold Previn upside down by her feet “to get the blood to drain to my head.” It is worth noting that similar accounts were written by Farrow’s son Moses in a blog earlier this year.
In Previn’s account of her relationship with Allen, she noted that no one thought they would last as a couple.
Previn revealed that Farrow found out about her relationship with Allen when she discovered nude photographs of her on the mantelpiece in Allen’s house.
“I remember the phone call when she found the photos,” Previn said. “I picked up the phone and Mia said, ‘Soon-Yi.’ That’s all she needed to say, in that chilling tone of voice. I knew my life was over and that she knew, just by the way she said my name.”
After the discovery, Farrow reportedly slapped her and threw her out of the house.
In response to the interview, Dylan Farrow took to Twitter to say that the New York magazine article is inaccurate and unfair.
“The idea of letting a friend of an alleged predator write a one-sided piece attacking the credibility of his victim is disgusting,” said Dylan Farrow wrote in her tweet.
“My mother never coached me, but she did stand by me, even when Woody Allen unleashed hell on her via lawyers and publicists and allies like the author of this piece. Thanks to my mother, I grew up in a wonderful home filled with love, that she created … no one is ‘parading me around as a victim’ – I continue to be an adult woman making a credible allegation unchanged for two decades, backed up by evidence.”
Dylan’s brother Ronan Farrow, a journalist who has written a series of #MeToo stories, including an exposé of Harvey Weinstein for which he jointly won the Pulitzer Prize, also posted a tweet criticizing New York Magazine for publishing “a hit job, written by a longtime admirer and friend of Woody Allen’s.”
“As a journalist, I’m shocked by the lack of care for the facts, the refusal to include eyewitness testimony that would contradict falsehoods in this piece, and the failure to print my sister’s responses,” he tweeted.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons / David Shankbone (CC BY 3.0)
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