Woody Allen and Soon- Yi Previn in 2011. Photo / Getty
Woody Allen and Soon- Yi Previn in 2011. Photo / Getty
Soon-Yi Previn has spoken out in a bombshell interview, accusing her adoptive mother Mia Farrow of being cruel and heartless toward her as a child as she defends her husband Woody Allen against Farrow's longstanding claims that he abused their adopted daughter Dylan when she was seven.
The 47-year-old Previn, whose controversial relationship with Allen began when she was 21 and he was dating Farrow, gave her first-ever lengthy interview for a piece in New York Magazine published on Sunday.
The article, which is sympathetic toward Previn and Allen, was written by the famed director's longtime friend, Daphne Merkin. She discloses in the article that Allen has been her friend 'for over four decades'.
Dylan Farrow has blasted the connection, dismissing the article as full of 'multiple obvious falsehoods' and reiterating her allegation that Allen molested her as a child.
Actress Mia Farrow with adopted daughter Soon Yi Previn in 1992. Photo / Supplied
Previn, going into great detail about her childhood, paints a picture of Farrow as a neglectful mother who was furious over her affair with Allen and possibly sought revenge.
When Farrow discovered the affair in January 1992 by finding naked Polaroids of Previn in Allen's home, she declared 'He took my daughter, I'm going to take his,' according to Allen's sister Letty Aronson.
The enraged actress even sent Allen a disturbing collage that Valentine's Day, with a family photo on a flower-encrusted, gilded heart with skewers stuck through the hearts of the images of the children and a real knife through her own heart, Merkin claims.
Allen and Farrow shared custody of three children at the time: Dylan; Ronan, who has gone on to fame as a journalist; and Moses. Farrow also at the time had three biological children from her prior marriage, and two adopted children from the marriage, including Soon-Yi.
The alleged molestation of Dylan took place on August 4 of 1992, as the revelation of Previn and Allen's relationship continued to rock the family.
'Mia was so volatile. I understand she would be angry — don't get me wrong, she had every right to be. But she was like a sinkhole taking everything down with her,' Previn said in the new interview.
Moses Previn, who is now a therapist, is the only of Farrow's 11 surviving children who spoke out in the article to support Previn's claims.
Moses described Farrow's parenting style as a 'total breakdown of your spirit, to ensure that you would do what she wanted you to do.'
'It's the honeymoon when you're first adopted, then the veil gets pulled back and you start seeing Mia for who she is,' he said. Farrow adopted Moses in 1989, when he was two.
Actor/director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow with her children. Photo / Getty
Previn described a difficult childhood with Farrow, who adopted her in 1978 from South Korea, where she was found wandering the streets aged about five.
Previn claims that Farrow asked her to make a tape about her origins, detailing how she'd been the daughter of a prostitute who beat her - but Previn had no memory of such a past, and refused.
She also describes Farrow's borderline abuse as she tried to adapt to life in a new country with an unfamiliar language.
'She tried to teach me the alphabet with those wooden blocks. If I didn't get them right, sometimes she'd throw them at me or down on the floor. Who can learn under that pressure?'
Previn claims that Farrow would hold her upside down 'to get the blood to drain to my head. Because she thought — or she read it, God knows where she came up with the notion — that blood going to my head would make me smarter or something.'
She also describes being slapped across the face and spanked her with a hairbrush by Farrow, who she says called her 'stupid' and 'moronic.'
Woody Allen and Soon- Yi Previn in 2011. Photo / Getty
In statements, Dylan Farrow and Ronan Farrow blasted the article as inaccurate and biased.
'The idea of letting a friend of an alleged predator write a one-sided piece attacking the credibility of his victim is disgusting,' said Dylan Farrow. 'Woody Allen molested me when I was seven years old.'
'As a brother and son, I'm angry that New York Magazine would participate in this kind of a hit job, written by a longtime admirer and friend of Woody Allen's,' wrote Ronan Farrow, Allen's purported biological son.
'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,' the Pulitzer-winner Ronan Farrow continued.
