In his first TV interview in three decades, Woody Allen has pledged his innocence in the sexual abuse allegations made by his daughter, Dylan Farrow.
CW: Child sexual abuse
The interview, filmed in July, has been released in response to the conclusion of the HBO docuseries Allen V. Farrow, which details the sexual assault allegations against him by his daughter.
Farrow, who originally made her allegations in 1992, has stuck by them since then; unsurprisingly, Allen has stuck to his steadfast denial of all his daughter’s allegations.
“It’s so preposterous, and yet the smear has remained and [the Farrows] still prefer to cling to if not the notion that I molested Dylan, then the possibility that I molested her,” Allen said in the interview. “Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that,” he continued.
Interestingly, Allen’s focus is less on Dylan’s version of events, but is rather on his ex-partner Mia Farrow’s encouragement of the allegations in the late ’90s, during a bitter split between the couple.
One of the most disturbing parts of the Allen v. Farrow documentary is the statistics showing that most of the time, allegations of child abuse are true, but also most of the time, the abusive father is able to convince a court that the mother is a lying bitch who made it up.
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) March 21, 2021
Woody Allen’s never been shy to controversy. During their split, Farrow found out that Allen had maintained a sexual relationship with their adoptive step-daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, whom he has now married. (Side note: this is the same man that, over 10 years prior, made Manhattan: a film that depicts a middle-aged man dating a teenager…)
In the interview, Allen also went on to comment directly on Dylan Farrow, saying that: “She was a good kid. I believe she thinks it. I don’t believe she’s making it up. She’s not lying. I believe she believes that,” while continuing to plead his innocence to the claims Farrow has made.
“When Dylan or Ronan wanted to confront it I was always there to say, ‘If you decide never to talk about it, I understand. If you decide you need to talk about it, I’m here with you.'”
All episodes of #AllenVFarrow are streaming on @HBOMax. pic.twitter.com/uxOusSGuso
— HBO Documentaries (@HBODocs) March 23, 2021
