Dylan Farrow was just 7 years old when she accused Allen of sexually assaulting her. No charges were pressed on the filmmaker after the investigation due to a lack of "credible evidence."
Trigger warning: Contains graphic description of abuse which could be disturbing for some readers.
29 years back, in August of 1992, Dylan Farrow, the 7-year-old adoptive daughter of American filmmaker and actor Woody Allen left everyone in shock when she accused him of sexually molesting her in the home of her adoptive mother, actress Mia Farrow. At the time, Allen and Farrow had been in a 12-year relationship and were parents to two adopted children: Dylan and Moses, and their biological child, Ronan Farrow, as per Wikipedia.
The alleged abuse took place eight months after Farrow discovered Allen and their adoptive daughter Soon-Yi Previn's romantic relationship. Previn was just 21 years old when their relationship came to light. After investigation, the New York Department of Social Services found "no credible evidence" to support the allegations, and Farrow got the full custody of Dylan, Moses, and Ronan while Allen was granted limited, supervised visitation with Moses and Ronan.
Although Dylan has previously opened up about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her adoptive father during an interview with Maureen Orth for Vanity Fair in 2013, followed by open letters in The New York Times in 2014, and Los Angeles Times op-ed in December 2017, Dylan is now detailing her trauma in a new documentary series titled, Allen v. Farrow.
The documentary, featuring some never-before-seen home footage, was filmed secretly over three years, reported The Daily Mail. In the series, 35-year-old Dylan recalled her mother telling her and her brother Ronan their father took "naked" pictures of Previn. "And that was sort of the first instance where I thought, 'Oh… it's not just me,'" she said. Previn later married Allen in 1997.
Dylan claimed in the series that the renowned filmmaker was "very slowly instilling the idea in my head she [Mia] was more [Ronan's] parent, he was more my parent, I was daddy's girl." To her, Allen was like a "magnet" showering her with "intense affection all the time" which made her "worship" him because he made her "feel so special." She added, "I was always in his clutches. He was always hunting me."
Even her family described that Dylan, who's also an actress like her mother and father, began locking herself in the bathroom because she didn't want to face Allen. Describing an early incident of abuse, she said she has "very vivid snapshots, different places, mostly a window with a feeling attached. I remember sitting on the edge of his bed. The light in the room, the satin sheets. There were clarinet reeds. I have memories of getting into bed with him."
After a few more incidents happened in the house, Farrow decided to record all of it in Dylan's words. While videotaping 7-year-old Dylan's trauma after an incident in the attic, the young girl can be heard saying, "I didn't want him to do it, mama. I didn't like it….I don't want to talk about it," as she describes the things Allen told her while abusing her.
Recalling the incident as an adult, she said, "... I remember just focusing on my brother's train set. And then… he just stopped. He was done. And we just went downstairs. I am that little girl on the tape. So… it's a very vulnerable part of me, and a very… a very hurt part of me. There's a lot of… That little girl is in a lot of pain."
The documentary also features phone calls between Allen and Farrow. In one of the conversations, the 76-year-old actress can be heard saying, "She's not alright, Woody. She walks around the house holding her vagina. She sleeps with me. She's scared of you and you've hurt her."
Recalling all of it, Farrow broke down in the series, feeling "guilty" of not protecting her daughter, and revealed what Dylan said to her. "She said, 'Mommy, you didn't help. Daddy shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have hurt me like that.' If you heard her you would weep inside and you would just want to be dead because I don't know how you can live with what you did."
Even though an investigation was started by the Connecticut State Police and child welfare services in New York after the incident, Allen was not prosecuted as, according to the report prepared by the Yale-New Haven Hospital child sexual abuse clinic, Dylan was labeled an unreliable witness due to her young age.
However, during an interview with People, Moses has accused Farrow of being abusive to him and drumming hatred for his father inside him "for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister" while he was growing up. "I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi," the 43-year-old said. Previn too called Farrow a "nasty, mean person" during an interview with Vulture, who assaulted her and threatened to send her to a mental asylum.
In Allen's recent memoir, Apropos of Nothing, the 85-year-old claimed Farrow "psychologically and corporally" abused her children into "submissive obedience."
You can catch the documentary on Sunday, February 21 at 9 p.m on HBO. The four-part series will air subsequent Sundays at the same time.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Allen_sexual_abuse_allegation
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2013/11/mia-farrow-frank-sinatra-ronan-farrow
https://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/?
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-farrow-woody-allen-me-too-20171207-story.html
https://people.com/celebrity/dylan-farrows-brother-moses-defends-woody-allen/
