Soon-Yi Previn Defends Woody Allen, Blasts Mia Farrow in Rare Interview

Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of Woody Allen, gave her first interview in decades about her early life with her adopted mother, Mia Farrow, and the allegations that Allen molested his daughter, Dylan Farrow.

Previn told New York Magazine that Farrow has been taking advantage of the #MeToo movement and the current conversation about sexual harassment to spread lies about Allen. That the magazine has given her a platform to defend the scandal-scarred filmmaker, however, has ignited controversy across social media.

Previn is famously private, but she told the magazine she wants to speak out now because accusations that Allen sexually abused Dylan when she was a child had resurfaced. Allen denies these claims.

“I was never interested in writing a ‘Mommie Dearest,’ getting even with Mia — none of that,” said Previn. “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.”

When Previn was six, she was adopted by Mia Farrow and Farrow’s former husband Andre Previn. Farrow began seeing Allen after she divorced Previn, when Soon-Yi was 11. Soon-Yi and Allen began a romantic relationship when Soon-Yi was 21 —while Allen was still with Farrow.

In the interview, Soon-Yi alleges that Farrow was verbally and physically abusive during her childhood, as well as being neglectful and playing favorites among her children.

Both Dylan Farrow and Ronan Farrow, the journalist who has written a series of #MeToo stories including the bombshell reporting on Harvey Weinstein that won him a joint Pulitzer Prize, have taken to Twitter to say the New York Magazine article is inaccurate and unfair.