Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of filmmaker Woody Allen, has broken her decades-long silence, saying the sexual assault claims against her husband were "unjust" and that her adoptive mother Mia Farrow has "taken advantage of the #MeToo movement".
Dylan Farrow, Allen's adopted daughter with Farrow, accused the director of sexually abusing her in the early 1990s while she was a child. She reiterated her allegations in a 2014 New York Times op-ed and other articles.
Allen previously claimed that Farrow "coached" her daughter into making the claims.
"I was never interested in writing a Mommie Dearest, getting even with Mia none of that. But what's happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust. (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," Priven is quoted in the New York magazine article.
The piece has been penned by Daphne Merkin, who has acknowledged that has been Allen's friend for over 40 years.
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Previn, who was adopted by Farrow and her former husband Andre Previn, recalled how the "Rosemary's Baby" star flew off the handle when she discovered her nude photos that Allen had taken at his apartment in January 1992.
"I remember the phone call when she found the photos. I picked up the phone and Mia said, 'Soon-Yi.' That's all she needed to say, in that chilling tone of voice. I knew my life was over and that she knew, just by the way she said my name. When she came home, she asked me about it, and 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, and then she was screaming at Woody when he came over."
Responding to Soon-Yi's article, Dylan slammed the author for writing "a one-sided piece attacking the credibility of his (Allen's) victim".
"The author even suggested that my mother bribed me to lie with a doll that was not manufactured until years later. My mother never coached me, but she did stand by me, even when Woody Allen unleashed hell on her via lawyers and publicists and allies like the author of this piece.
"Thanks to my mother, I grew up in a wonderful home, filled with love, that she created... I continue to be an adult woman making a credible allegation unchanged for two decade, backed up by evidence. My only hesitation has been the way my mother is targeted as a result, as is the case here," she said in a statement shared on Twitter.
Farrow and Allen's biological son Ronan, who has emerged as a prominent journalist in the #MeToo movement and has always supported his adopted sister's claims, took to the microblogging site to express his anger towards the "falsehoods" in what he claims is a story planted by Allen to "attack and vilify" his mother.
"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. Survivors of abuse deserve better," Ronan tweeted.
Farrow's other children - Matthew Previn, Sascha Previn, Fletcher Previn, Daisy Previn, Isaiah Farrow and Quincy Farrow - also published a joint statement, standing by their mother.
"We love and stand by our mom, who has always been a caring and giving parent. None of us ever witnessed anything other than compassionate treatment in our home, which is why the courts granted sole custody to our mother of all her children.
"We reject any effort to deflect from Dylan allegation by trying to vilify our mom. While we would rather not have to speak publicly about this painful time in our lives, we also couldn't be silent as she is once again unfairly attacked," the statement read.
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