Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn are denying the allegations raised in the new HBO documentary Allen v. Farrow. The filmmaker and his wife released a statement on Sunday — after the docu-series’ debut — staunchly rejecting the claims and the veracity of the documentary itself.
“These documentarians had no interest in the truth,” claims the joint statement released to ET by a spokesperson for the couple. “Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods.”
The statement claims that Allen and Previn “were approached less than two months ago and given only a matter of days ‘to respond.’ Of course, they declined to do so.”
“As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place,” the statement continues. “It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO – which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow.”
“While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts,” the statement concluded.
Allen v. Farrow explores Dylan Farrow’s sexual abuse allegations against her adoptive father. The four-part HBO docu-series, from investigative filmmakers Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering and Amy Herdy, reveals the private story behind one of Hollywood’s most notorious public scandals involving the director of films like Annie Hall, Manhattan and Midnight in Paris.
Allen and actress Mia Farrow were in a relationship for 12 years from 1980 to 1992 and during that time, the two adopted Dylan and Moses and had one biological child, Ronan, together. Additionally, Farrow had three other biological children with ex-husband André Previn and three adopted children, including Soon-Yi Previn. (Farrow later adopted five more children.)
The director was accused of sexually molesting a then 7-year-old Dylan in Farrow’s Connecticut home in August 1992. This reportedly happened seven months after Farrow learned Allen was having a romantic relationship with Soon-Yi. Later that month, their relationship went public around the same time as the Connecticut State Police announced it was investigating Dylan’s allegations.
While the state’s attorney did not press charges, local law enforcement referred the case to the Yale–New Haven Hospital, which concluded that Allen had not abused Dylan and that her allegations were likely influenced by her mother. Meanwhile, Allen and Farrow’s relationship had completely devolved, with the claims further scrutinized in court during a contentious 1993 custody battle.
In 1997, Allen married Soon-Yi and the couple has since adopted two children together.
Controversy surrounding Allen picked up again two decades later, when Dylan spoke to Vanity Fair and then followed up those comments with an open letter in The New York Times.
Meanwhile, Allen has continuously denied allegations, while only recently speaking out publicly in an op-ed for The New York Times and issuing a statement to CBS This Morning. And Soon-Yi has only spoken out once, giving a rare interview to New York magazine in 2018.
The first of the four-part series premiered on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday. New episodes air subsequent Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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