'Woody Allen Sexually Assaulted Me,' Says Daughter Dylan
Feb. 2 2014, Published 10:00 a.m. ET
Two decades ago, Mia Farrow claimed her longtime partner, Woody Allen, had sexually abused their adopted daughter, Dylan. Now it's Dylan's turn to detail the accusations.
In a scathing open letter published by The New York Times Dylan says in no uncertain terms, "Woody Allen sexually assaulted me."
Now living in Florida under a different name, Dylan, 28 wrote in part:
"What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies.....
I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore."
Dylan told her actress mother about the incident in the attic and a firestorm ensued. She reported the allegations to the police. A debate continues all these years later as to the depth - or lack of - the investigation that was done on "the rich and powerful" Allen.
Ultimately, the prosecutor decided not to charge Allen because, he said, "the child victim was too fragile" to testify against him. A family court judge did, however, strip Allen of custody and even visitation with Dylan and all of Mia's other children.
A few years after her torment began, Dylan received a second shock when Woody -- who had never married Mia -- was discovered to have taken nude photographers of another of her adopted daughters, Soon-Yi Previn.
Allen and Soon-Yi married in 1997 and are still together.
Dylan's open letter was motivated, she explains, because of the way Hollywood lauds Allen.
His recent Lifetime Achievement Award given at the Golden Globes and his nomination for an Academy Award were the straws that broke the camel's back, for not just Dylan, but her mother and her brother, Ronan Farrow, both of whom spoke out against it.
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Slamming, by name, celebrities who praise Allen, Dylan asks:
"What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?"
Allen has always maintained he never abused or assaulted Dylan in any way.