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Soon-Yi Previn speaks out about claims against Woody Allen

Soon-Yi Previn has kept silent over the years about her relationship with her husband, Woody Allen, and her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow.
Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images
US director Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn pose as they arrive on May 11, 2016 for the screening of the film "Cafe Society" during the opening ceremony of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France.

Soon-Yi Previn, Woody Allen’s wife of 20 years and Mia Farrow’s adoptive daughter, has broken her silence in a lengthy and explosive interview with New York magazine.

The interview, conducted by Daphne Merkin, who acknowledges in the story that she’s been a friend of Allen’s for more than 40 years, details what Previn, 47, describes as an abusive childhood, explains how her relationship with Allen began and addresses allegations that Allen molested adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.

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

Merkin has previously written of her admiration for Allen in her 2014 book "The Fame Lunches," a collection of essays.

Previn married Allen, who is 35 years her elder, in 1997. She was brought to the United States from South Korea by Farrow and her then-husband Andre Previn in 1977 and adopted.

Mia and Dylan Farrow aren't quoted in the story. Nor is Ronan Farrow, whose investigative reports in the New Yorker uncovered allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, setting the #MeToo movement into motion.

The Farrow family denounced the report in statements sent to USA TODAY by their representative, Chris Bastardi.

Dylan Farrow, who says she was contacted by New York magazine, criticized the report for "multiple obvious falsehoods."

"Woody Allen molested me when I was seven years old, part of a documented pattern of inappropriate, abusive touching that led a judge to say there was no evidence I was coached and that it was unsafe for me to be in Woody Allen's presence," her statement says in part. "The idea of letting a friend of an alleged predator write a one-sided piece attacking the credibility of his victim is disgusting."

"None of us ever witnessed anything other than compassionate treatment in our home," says a statement from seven of Farrow's children, including Ronan. "We reject any effort to deflect from Dylan's allegation by trying to vilify our mom.

Ronan Farrow described the story as "a hit job," writing that "survivors of abuse deserve better."

"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," he wrote. "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 print my sister's responses."

USA TODAY has reached out to Mia Farrow's representative for comment.

Among the report's key allegations:

► Soon-Yi didn’t like Mia from the start:“I remember the second I laid eyes on her,” Previn says. “There was a big excitement and hoopla around her. And she came to me and she threw her arms around me to give me a big hug. I’m standing there rigidly, thinking, Who is this woman, and can she get her hands off of me? She didn’t ring true or sincere.”

► Farrow once asked her to describe on tape how she’d been born to a prostitute who beat her. Previn, who says she ran away from her biological mother to escape poverty, refused.

► Her adoptive mother thought she was “hopelessly backward” and would “arbitrarily (show) her power,” by slapping Soon-Yi, spanking her with a hairbrush or calling her “stupid” and “moronic.” Once, Farrow threw a porcelain rabbit at Soon-Yi, smashing it to pieces and startling both of them. “I could see from the expression on her face that she felt she had gone too far. Because it could have really hurt me.”

► Previn says she has a learning disability she's never spoken about, "because Mia drummed it into me to be ashamed about it. ... She would also tip me upside down, holding me by my feet, to get the blood to drain to my head. Because she thought – or she read it, God knows where she came up with the notion – that blood going to my head would make me smarter or something.”

► Previn describes a “hierarchy” among Farrow’s children. “She didn’t try to hide it,” Soon-Yi says. “Mia always valued intelligence and also looks, blond hair and blue eyes.” She claims she and her adopted sisters were used as domestic help. “We did the grocery shopping, starting in third grade, for the entire family,” Soon-Yi says. “We cleaned the bathrooms, cleared the dishes, washed up, and did the sweeping.”

► She says she she hated Allen on sight. “I didn’t understand why anyone could be with such a nasty, mean person (as Mia). I thought he must be the same way.”

► Previn describes the start of her relationship with Allen as happening over an Ingmar Bergman movie. "We were like two magnets, very attracted to each other.”

► She says she didn’t pursue Allen. “Where would I get the nerve? He pursued me.” So why did she betray her mother? “Mia was never kind to me, never civil. And here was a chance for someone showing me affection and being nice to me, so of course I was thrilled and ran for it.”

She “regrets” that Farrow found naked Polaroids in early 1992 that Allen shot of her. “I think it would have been horrible for her,” Previn says. It was a "huge betrayal on both our parts, a terrible thing to do, a terrible shock to inflict on her.”

When Farrow confronted her about the relationship, “I – survival instinct – denied it. And then she said, ‘I have photos.’ So I knew I was trapped. Of course, she slapped me, you know the way of things. And then she called everyone. She didn’t contain the situation; she just spread it like wildfire.”

► Shortly after finding the Polaroids, the report says, Farrow sent Allen a Valentine's Day collage, a heart upon which she'd pasted a family photo. She stuck skewers and a real knife through the hearts of everyone in the picture.

Allen’s sister, Letty Aronson, quotes Farrow as subsequently telling her, “He took my daughter, I’m going to take his.”

“I said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. (Dylan) loves Woody. A child should have a father,’ “ Aronson told Merkin. “She said, ‘I don’t care.’ ”

New York Magazine spokesperson Lauren Starke defended the story, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "This is a story about Soon-Yi Previn, and puts forward her perspective on what happened in her family. We believe she is entitled to be heard. 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. We hope people will read it for themselves."

Contributing: Bryan Alexander and Susan Haas

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