After Decades of Silence, Soon-Yi Previn Speaks

Woody Allen's wife blasts Mia Farrow in controversial 'New York' interview
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 17, 2018 6:21 AM CDT
After Decades of Silence, Soon-Yi Previn Speaks
In this July 15, 2015, file photo, director Woody Allen and wife Soon-Yi Previn attend a special screening of "Irrational Man" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, file)

One person we haven't heard from in decades "as controversies tumbled around her": Soon-Yi Previn, wife of Woody Allen and adopted daughter of Mia Farrow. "No more," writes Daphne Merkin in a piece in New York that's attracting plenty of attention—and backlash. Previn details her life, from the time she says she was a 5-year-old runaway in South Korea, up through her adoption by Farrow and headline-making relationship with Allen, who'd been in a long-term relationship with Farrow. "He pursued me," Previn says, revealing she "hated him" at first. "That's why the relationship has worked. ... He's usually a meek person, and he took a big leap." Much of the piece, however, focuses on Previn's thoughts on Farrow and sibling Dylan Farrow, who has stood by her accusations that adoptive father Allen molested her when she was a child.

"What's happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust," Previn tells Merkin, saying Mia Farrow was an abusive, neglectful mother who "has taken advantage of the #MeToo movement and paraded Dylan as a victim." A good deal of outrage about the interview is driven by Merkin's 40-year friendship with Allen, notes the Hollywood Reporter. Dylan Farrow put out a statement saying Merkin's story was full of "bizarre fabrications." "The idea of letting a friend of an alleged predator write a one-sided piece attacking the credibility of his victim is disgusting," she notes. She also posted a statement from seven of her siblings in support of their mom, as well as one from brother Ronan Farrow, who's been instrumental in advancing the "Me Too" movement with his exposes. New York has "done something shameful here," he writes, calling the piece a "hit job." Full interview with Previn here. (More Soon-Yi Previn stories.)

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