Model Christina Engelhardt claims she dated Woody Allen when she was 16

Former actor-model Christina Engelhardt has claimed that she had a relationship with veteran filmmaker Woody Allen that started when she was 16 and he was 41.

Engelhardt, now 59, opened up about her alleged affair with Allen in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

She said she chose to come forward now after reevaluating parts of her relationship with the famous director.

"What made me speak is I thought I could provide a perspective. I'm not attacking Woody. This is not 'bring down this man'. I'm talking about my love story. This made me who I am. I have no regrets," Engelhardt said.

Engelhardt said she met Allen in October 1976 when she was a teen model and soon Allen, who was 41 at the time, invited her to his Manhattan penthouse.

She and Allen became physically intimate at his apartment within weeks, months before she turned 17, which is the legal age of consent in the state of New York.

The model, however, said she has no intention to bring down Allen.

"This is not 'bring down this man'. I'm talking about my love story. This made me who I am. I have no regrets," she said in the interview.

Engelhardt insisted she was the inspiration for the character, Tracy, the 17-year-old lover of Allen's character in his 1979 film "Manhattan", but admitted she does not think she was the only one on whom the the character was based.

She said they continued the relationship for eight years in which they often met at his penthouse overlooking the Central Park.

"The curtains were always drawn. The view must have been spectacular. I wasn't there for the view," she said.

Engelhardt said, four years into their romance, she was surprised when Allen told her he wanted to introduce her to his new "girlfriend", Mia Farrow.

Though Engelhardt said she felt shaken by the introduction, as she considered herself Allen's girlfriend, she stayed with the director while he dated Farrow.

"I felt sick. I didn't want to be there at all, and yet I couldn't find the courage to get up and leave. To leave would mean an end to all of this. Looking back now, that's exactly what I needed, but back then, the idea of not having Woody in my life at all terrified me. So I sat there, patiently, calmly trying to assess the situation, trying to understand why he wanted the two of us to meet."