Woody Allen Facts
Mia Farrow brought allegations against Woody Allen 20 years ago that were debunked. Now they have resurfaced, this time by Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow.
Charges were never formally filed, the allegations were dismissed by independent researchers and doctors who examined Dylan Farrow. In this climate of #MeToo and casting couch call-outs, is it right to condemn a man without knowing the facts around this case - and what are the facts around the case?
April 1980: Woody Allen and Mia Farrow begin dating
July 11, 1985: Mia adopts Dylan O’Sullivan Farrow from Texas
December 19, 1987: Mia gives birth to her son with Woody, Satchel Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow. 26 years later Mia suggests that he may have actually been Frank Sinatra’s son.
December 17, 1991: Woody formally adopts Moses and Dylan Farrow
January 1992: Mia and Woody end their relationship after Mia Farrow learns of his affair with Soon-Yi Previn.
February 1992: Mia gives Woody a Valentine, a family photo pierced with skewers and a knife
February 1992: Mia adopts Tam and Isaiah, bringing her total number of children to twelve
July 1992: Woody finds a note in Mia’s handwriting that reads: “Child Molester at Birthday Party! Molded then abused one sister now focused on youngest sister. Family disgusted.”
August 4, 1992: Woody visits his children at Mia’s house in Connecticut
August 5, 1992: Mia calls their psychologist, Dr. Susan Coates, to say seven-year old Dylan has begun to complain that Woody abused her. Dr. Coates reports the allegation to New York State Child Welfare authorities. Mia takes Dylan to the pediatrician, where Dylan gestures to her shoulder when asked where she was touched
August 6, 1992 Mia tapes Dylan claiming that Allen sexually abused her. The tape repeatedly stops and starts, indicating it has been heavily edited
August 7, 1992: Dr. Coates tells Woody of the allegations against him. She later testifies, “He sat on the edge of his chair and his eyes were very wide. He said, ‘I’m completely flabbergasted. I’m completely flabbergasted’
August 9, 1992: Physical exam of Dylan shows no evidence of sexual abuse
August 13, 1992: Woody sues for custody of their three children
August 17, 1992: Connecticut State Police begin to investigate the allegation
January 25, 1992: Monica Thompson resigns from the Farrow household after being pressured by Mia to support charges against Woody even though she has “serious doubts” about the truth of the claims
March 18, 1993: A team of expert from Yale-New Haven hospital, who have investigated the abuse allegation for months at the request of Connecticut State Police, tell both parents that they’ve concluded Dylan was not molested
March 29, 1993: Dr. Coates testifies that she told Woody that threats made by Mia made her fear for his safety
April 20, 1993: Dr. John M. Leventhal of Yale-New Haven Hospital enters sworn statement into evidence describing inconsistencies in Dylan’s account
June 7, 1993: Mia Farrow is awarded full custody of Dylan and Satchel Farrow. Moses Farrow elects to stay with Mia Farrow, but later reunites with Woody Allen.
October 7, 1993: New York State’s Department of Social Services finds “no credible evidence” that Dylan Farrow has been abused or maltreated
Mia Farrow was angry with Woody after discovering his affair with her adopted adult daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. She then lashed out.
Woody Allen on 60 minutes in 1992. Woody: Mia called and said "I have something very nasty planned for you" and I said "What are you gonna do, shoot me?"
..."and on many many occasions over the phone and in person, Mia had said to me 'you took my daughter and I'm gonna take yours'".
Soon-Yi openly disclosed the nature of her relationship, as a consenting adult, with Woody Allen.
To clarify the abundance of misinformation: Soon-Yi was never Woody's daughter. She was the daughter of Mia Farrow and Andre Previn. Soon-Yi is not the only one who claims Mia chooses to "burden all the children with these adult problems".
As for her early relationship with Woody Allen, Soon-Yi claims Woody had no interest in her (why would he, she wasn't his daughter) and neither had an interest in the other until she was an adult.
Dr. Susan Coates, a psychologist who knew the Allen Family well and had worked with both the children, Mr. Allen, Ms. Farrow for years, found Mia Farrow to be threatening towards Mr. Allen after she found out that he was having an affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. Dr. Coates was questioned by Mr. Allen’s lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz. Dr. Coates, portrayed Ms. Farrow as filled with escalating rage after discovering Mr. Allen’s affair with Ms. Previn in January 1992.
Mia Farrow sent Woody Allen a disturbing valentine with skewers and a steak knife through the picture of herself. Farrow responded to the act by saying, “It was not a threat, it was an attempt to depict to a man who didn’t know or didn’t care what he had done,” she said. “He seemed to have no concept. The morality of the situation seemed to have totally eluded him. I wanted to depict the degree of pain he had inflicted on me and my entire family.”
Ms. Farrow phoned Dr. Cotes to say that Dylan had begun complaining that Mr. Allen had abused her. Dr. Coates characterized Ms. Farrow as having been extremely calm during the call, in contrast to her agitated state in other calls. “I was puzzled, because in that conversation she was very calm,” Dr. Coates said. “I did not understand her calm.”
Dr. Coates, who had continued to see Mr. Allen as part of Satchel’s (Woody and Mia’s son) therapy, broke the news to Mr. Allen of Dylan’s allegations a few days later. He sat on the edge of his chair and his eyes were very wide,” Dr. Coates recalled. “He said, ‘I’m completely flabbergasted. I’m completely flabbergasted.’ He said it over and over again.”
New York State child welfare investigators dropped their inquiry into the charge that Woody Allen sexually molested his 7-year-old daughter, saying they consider the accusation unfounded.
The state Department of Social Services informed Mr. Allen in a letter dated Oct. 7 that it had closed the 14-month-old investigation. “No credible evidence was found that the child named in this report has been abused or maltreated,” the letter said. “This report has, therefore, been considered unfounded.”
What was noted, was that the video taping of Dylan occurred over the course of several hours and had been edited in camera before a phone call was placed by Mia Farrow.
Woody Allen tells 60 Minutes about Mia's accusation and behaviour shortly thereafter. On August 4th, Mia Farrow accused Woody Allen of abusing Dylan Farrow. A week later she was inquiring about the next movie, her costume, and wardrobe needs.
Dr. Leventhal said it was “very striking” that each time Dylan spoke of the abuse, she coupled it with “one, her father’s relationship with Soon-Yi, and two, the fact that it was her poor mother, her poor mother,” who had lost a career in Mr. Allen’s films. Dr. Leventhal said: “We had two hypotheses: one, that these were statements that were made by an emotionally disturbed child and then became fixed in her mind. And the other hypothesis was that she was coached or influenced by her mother. We did not come to a firm conclusion. We think that it was probably a combination.”
He also said it was possible that Miss Farrow encouraged her child to fabricate simply by videotaping her telling the story because Dylan liked to perform. Dylan’s statements in interviews at the hospital contradicted each other and the story she told on a videotape made by Miss Farrow, Dr. Leventhal said. “Those were not minor inconsistencies,” he said. “She told us initially that she hadn’t been touched in the vaginal area, and she then told us that she had, then she told us that she hadn’t.”
Lawyers for Woody Allen said Monday that a former nanny who worked for Mia Farrow has testified she was pressured by the actress to support charges that the filmmaker molested their 7-year-old.
The nanny, Monica Thompson, resigned from the Farrow household on Jan. 25 after being subpoenaed in the bitter custody battle between the actress and Allen. She told Allen's lawyers in depositions that another baby-sitter and one of the couple's other adopted children told her they had serious doubts about the molestation accusation.
Mia Farrow went on record as stating that Monica Thompson's salary was paid by Allen -- but it had always been paid by Allen as well as other childcare expenses.
Moses divulges details about growing up with his mother Mia Farrow in an interview with author Eric Lax. Moses said, “Mia’s ability and intent to mold her children to do her bidding was matched by her living in constant fear her secrets of abusive parenting would be divulged, and the reputation she built as the loving mother of a large brood of adopted kids would be destroyed. My biggest fear was that we would be rejected, excommunicated rather, from her and the family. I lived in constant threat of this happening. As an adopted child, there is no bigger fear than to lose your family.” Moses stated that “now that I no longer live in fear of her rejection, I am free to share how she cultivated and brainwashed me as she has done with Ronan and Dylan.
Moses believes that in no way did Woody sexually abuse Dylan. The molestation accusation against Woody was calculated. Mia had a judge who seemed sympathetic to her case; she found a lawyer who helped craft her arguments, she used her influence as a mother over her children and used it to gain favor in the media.” Along with the abuse that Moses explained he endured, he found that much of the story that Dylan told about her experience with Woody Allen didn’t match the reality he remembered. Dylan in which she detailed the alleged 1992 sexual assault by Woody: “My father told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me… I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.”
Moses says there is a central problem with the recollection: “I assure you, there was no electric train set in that attic. There was nothing practical about that space as a place for kids to play, even if we wanted to. It was an unfinished attic with exposed fiberglass insulation. It smelled of mothballs, and there were mouse traps, and poison pellets left all around. My mother used it for storage where she kept several trunks full of hand-me-down clothes, that sort of thing. The idea that the space could possibly accommodate a functioning electric train set, circling around the attic, makes no sense at all.
Moses Farrow has made several statements in an attempt to equalize Mia Farrow's narrative.
“My mother drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister,” Moses, 36, tells PEOPLE in the magazine’s new issue. “And I hated him for her for years. I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi.” Moses, a family therapist, says that his own life has been made better by spending time with Allen. “I think my sister is missing a great deal in life in not reconnecting with her father, who had always adored her,” he says. “It’s important that she assert her independence from our mother and not go through life with the false impression that she has been molested by my father.”
The typical offender is male and begins molesting by age 15, engages in a variety of deviant behavior, and molests an average of 117 youngsters, most of whom do not report the offense - Dr Gene Abel in a National Institute of Mental Health Study.
Woody Allen - one allegation, crafted by Mia Farrow.
I believe Woody Allen. I think he has been vilified unfairly, swept up in the very important #metoo movement by a manipulative ex and I want to share the facts.
