Woody Allen addresses Dylan Farrow’s abuse allegations in first in-depth TV interview in 30 years

‘I believe she believes that,’ said filmmaker

Woody Allen once again proclaimed his innocence in a rare interview on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday (28 March), addressing allegations of historic sexual abuse by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.

“I believe she thinks it,” said the filmmaker, referring to his daughter’s abuse claims. “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.”

The interview on CBS was originally record in July 2020, but only just aired this weekend.

Allen has not been charged with any crimes and has always vehemently denied allegations that he molested his young daughter, who claims the abuse took place in 1992 when she was seven years old.

“It’s so preposterous, and yet the smear has remained,” he 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.”

Read more:

• Talking points and theories from Line of Duty season 6, episode 2
• Jessica Simpson says she doesn’t want a public apology from John Mayer
• Kim Kardashian talks about ‘frustrating’ marriage to Kanye West in latest KUWTK episode
• Seth Rogen clarifies rumour that Emma Watson ‘stormed off’ the set of This Is the End

Allen said he would like to talk to Farrow, but has not spoken to her in many years.

The interview also addressed Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, another adopted daughter of his ex-wife Mia Farrow. Allen and Previn had an affair while he was still married to Farrow.

“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.”

He said 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.”

The age gap between Allen and Previn, who are married, is 35 years. Many of Allen’s films – including Whatever Works, Manhattan and Husbands and Wives – depict relationships between older men and younger women.

Dylan Farrow in a frame from the HBO documentary Allen v Farrow (HBO)

“I would say of the many women I’ve dated in my life, many women, they were all what the appropriate police would call appropriate – age appropriate,” he said. “Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Louise Lasser, my first wife; until Soon-Yi, which is unusual for me.”

He added: “If you’d have told me I was going to wind up married, and happily married, to an Asian woman much younger than me, not in show business, I would have said, ‘The odds of that are very slim. I don’t think you’re going to be right.’ But that’s what happened.”

Video footage of Farrow accusing Allen as a seven-year-old was recently shared in the HBO documentary Allen v Farrow.

The footage was shot by her adoptive mother and was reportedly used in her custody battle with Allen in 1993.