In an interview by CBS Sunday morning, that was conducted during the summer of 2020, Woody Allen came on screen for the first time in 30 years. He addresses questions regarding the allegations of sexual abuse by his daughter, Dylan Farrow, as well as his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his former partner, Mia Farrow. Allen maintains his innocence in the sexual abuse case while also noting his belief that Farrow “believes” she’s telling the truth.
The interview was recently released on streamer Paramount Plus conducted by CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan, as he would skim through the details of the infamous allegations on filmmaker Allen. Despite being conducted last summer, it was held and released on the heels of the March 14 conclusion of the four-part HBO docuseries Allen v. Farrow, which once again put Farrow’s accusations into the spotlight. Allen did not take part in that series.
Allen has never been charged of any crimes and continues to deny any part in the sexual abuse allegations as imposed by Dylan, that went public when she was 7. He and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, whom his ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow adopted with her ex-husband, composer André Previn, have declared Allen v. Farrow as fiction, claiming it as “a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods.”
He also added: “She was a good kid. I do not believe that she’s making it up. I don’t believe she’s lying. I believe she believes that.” Allen told CBS that he would like to reach out to Dylan, yet he has made no attempts since the surfacing of the allegations.
Allen further discusses his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, which became public in the early 90s. At the time, Mia Farrow was still his girlfriend when she found nude pictures of Previn, who was 21 then. Allen (then 56) and Farrow soon ended their relationship.
“The last thing in the world that anybody wanted was to hurt anybody’s feelings,” Allen said. “What we wanted to do was to eventually make it known that we had a relationship.”
Despite claiming that this has been the “deepest relationship in (his) life” he has ever had, he also admits that he was “totally surprised” at the onset of this relationship with Previn. When asked whether he found this inappropriate, given Previn was the adopted daughter of his ex-partner, Allen said, “no”. He added that there was “never a moment that it wasn’t the most natural thing in the world … it didn’t give me pause, because the relationship with Soon-Yi was very gradual. It wasn’t like I went out with her one night and kissed her.”
He admits his relationship with Mia Farrow had reached a point of being a “relationship of convenience” and was “never going to be a marital relationship.”
In 2018, CBS’s Gayle King spoke to Dylan Farrow in a televised interview where Farrow maintained that Allen sexually molested her when she was a child. This she had written about in op-eds and open letters but not addressed previously on camera.
Allen maintained that the allegations were merely a means for Mia Farrow to take revenge on him for his relationship with Previn. He claims that Dylan was brainwashed into believing that he had abused her while asserting: “It’s so preposterous, and yet the smear has remained,” Allen said. “And they still prefer to cling to if not the notion that I molested Dylan, the possibility that I molested her. Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that.”
In a taped call on Allen v Farrow, we hear Mia confront Allen: “She’s not all right, Woody”.
“What I don’t understand is, how is this crazy story of me being brainwashed and coached more believable than what I’m saying about being sexually assaulted by my father?” Dylan Farrow said. “Except every step of the way, my mother has only encouraged me to tell the truth. She has never coached me.”
He’s lying and he’s been lying for so long.
Dylan Farrow
Allen and Previn have been married for 23 years raising two adopted daughters who are now in college. Allen claims this to be the proof of his innocence: “They don’t give two baby girls to someone they think is a pedophile.”
When asked about his views on actors admitting to regret working with him, he says: “They’re well-meaning but foolish.” He accuses them of “enabling this lie” against a “perfectly innocent person.” But he says he ultimately isn’t bothered by what others think about him.
“Do I care that some guy sitting at home or some woman is thinking, ‘I don’t care what investigators say, I still believe he’s a pedophile’? It’s as meaningful as a person sitting at home saying ‘I believe him and he’s a wonderful guy and he’s gotten a raw deal,'” he said.
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