Soon-Yi Previn breaks decades-long silence to defend husband Woody Allen against sex abuse allegations

Interview by Daphne Merkin has has been criticised because its author is a longtime friend and admirer of Allen's

Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of Woody Allen, has spoken out over what she calls “unjust” treatment of the Annie Hall filmmaker.

In an interview with New York Magazine’s website Vulture, Previn defended her husband against allegations that he molested his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, and also accused her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow, of using the #MeToo movement as part of a revenge campaign.

“What’s happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust,” Previn said. “[Mia] has taken advantage of the #MeToo movement and paraded Dylan [Farrow] as a victim. And a whole new generation is hearing about it when they shouldn’t.”

Dylan Farrow and her siblings – Ronan Farrow, Matthew Previn, Sascha Previn, Fletcher Previn, Daisy Previn, Isaiah Farrow and Quincy Farrow – have condemned the interview.

She said it contained “multiple obvious falsehoods” and repeated her allegation that Allen molested her when she was seven years old.

Allen has always denied the claims. An investigation in 1993 found that he had not sexually assaulted her. However, a judge said at a 1993 custody ruling that “we will probably never know what occurred on 4 August 1992 ... Mr Allen’s behaviour towards Dylan was grossly inappropriate and ... measures must be taken to protect her.” Dylan Farrow was removed from Allen’s custody.

“We love and stand by our mom [Mia Farrow], who has always been a caring and giving parent,” a statement shared by Dylan and Ronan Farrow on Twitter read. “None of us ever witnessed anything other than compassionate treatment in our home, which is why the courts granted sole custody to our mother of all her children. We reject any effort to deflect from Dylan’s allegation by trying to vilify our mom.”

Previn’s relationship with Allen, 35 years her senior, caused a scandal in the early Nineties when their affair was made public. Farrow discovered their relationship by finding naked photographs of Previn at Allen’s home.

In the interview, she paints Farrow as a cruel mother who was at times physically and emotionally abusive.

“She tried to teach me the alphabet with those wooden blocks,” she said. “If I didn’t get them right, sometimes she’d throw them at me or down on the floor.”

She also alleges that Farrow would slap her face, spank her with a hairbrush and call her “stupid” and “moronic”. She claims she and her adopted sisters were treated like “domestics” and ordered to do the grocery shopping, cleaning, ironing and other household chores.

Mia Farrow and Woody Allen together in 1989 (Getty)

“I understand she would be angry – don’t get me wrong, she had every right to be,” Previn said of Farrow’s reaction to the affair. “But she was like a sinkhole taking everything down with her.”

New York Magazine has been criticised particularly because the interview with Previn was written by Daphne Merkin, a longtime friend and admirer of Allen’s who is also a vocal critic of the #MeToo movement.

Merkin has written several pieces detailing her close relationship with the filmmaker over 40 years, and writes in her book The Fame Lunches that she once wrote him a letter in her early twenties and that “I had fixed on [Allen] as my alter ego” and “he was the perfect non-celebrity for a non-groupie like me”.

New York Magazine spokeswoman Lauren Starke defended the interview and its author, saying: “Soon-Yi Previn is telling her story for the first time, and we hope people will withhold judgement until they have read the feature.

“Daphne Merkin’s relationship to Woody Allen is disclosed and is a part of the story as is Soon-Yi’s reason for speaking out now. I would add that Daphne approached Soon-Yi about doing this piece, not vice-versa. We reached out to both Mia and Dylan Farrow for comment; Dylan chose to speak through her representative. The story is transparent about being told from Soon-Yi’s point of view.”

Allen was also quoted in the story. Discussing his relationship with Previn he said: “I am a pariah. People think that I was Soon-Yi’s father, that I raped and married my underaged, retarded daughter.” He revealed that former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton returned a donation from him in 2016.

Dylan Farrow’s brother Ronan, one of her most vocal supporters, said: “I owe everything I am to Mia Farrow. She is a devoted mom who went through hell for her family all while creating a loving home for us. But that has never stopped Woody Allen and his allies from planting stories that attack and vilify my mother to deflect from my sister’s credible allegation of abuse.

“As a brother and a son, I’m angry that New York Magazine would participate in this kind of 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 include my sister’s complete responses. Survivors of abuse deserve better.”