Woody Allen denies allegation that he abused adopted daughter
Woody Allen, in a response posted on The New York Times website Friday night, denied his adopted daughter's claim that he had molested her when she was 7 years old.
Allen accused his former partner, actress Mia Farrow, of being vindictive and spiteful and of using their daughter as a pawn for revenge. He has rejected the allegation since it was brought two decades ago.
Last week, 28-year-old Dylan Farrow wrote publicly about it for the first time, in The New York Times, saying Allen had sexually assaulted her at Mia Farrow's home in Connecticut.
"Of course, I did not molest Dylan," Allen, 78, responded. "I loved her and hope one day she will grasp how she has been cheated out of having a loving father and exploited by a mother more interested in her own festering anger than her daughter’s well-being."
The renewal of the accusation came three weeks after Allen received a Golden Globe Award for lifetime achievement. At the time of the award, her brother, Ronan Farrow, tweeted: “Missed the Woody Allen tribute — did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?”
Two days ago another brother, Moses Farrow -- who was also adopted and is
now a 36-year-old family therapist -- spoke out in support of Allen and placed the blame
on their mother.
The allegation was first made when Allen was starting a relationship with Farrow's adopted adult daughter Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, to whom he is now married.
Allen was never charged with a crime, though a Connecticut prosecutor said at the time that he believed there was "probable cause." He did not move forward, in part because a courtroom appearance could be traumatic for Dylan Farrow, he said.
"I still loved her deeply, and felt guilty that by falling in love with Soon-Yi I had put her in the position of being used as a pawn for revenge," he wrote. "Soon-Yi and I made countless attempts to see Dylan but Mia blocked them all, spitefully knowing how much we both loved her but totally indifferent to the pain and damage she was causing the little girl merely to appease her own vindictiveness."
Allen also addressed a suggestion from Farrow that Ronan Farrow might not be Allen's son but the son of her ex-husband, Frank Sinatra."Even if he is not Frank’s, the possibility she raises that he could be, indicates she was secretly intimate with him during our years," Allen asked in his letter. "Not to mention all the money I paid for child support. Was I supporting Frank’s son?"
Dylan Farrow responded to Allen's op-ed late Friday in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, labeling it as "the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at me for the past 20 years.