Woody Allen is a film director, writer, actor, and comedian with multiple Academy Award-Winning films under his belt. Mia Farrow is an actress and fashion model who starred in 13 of Woody's films. Throughout their 12-year relationship, Woody Allen allegedly molested their 7 year old daughter, Dylan, and groomed Mia's daughter, Soon-Yi.

There are a lot of questions surrounding the sexual abuse allegations, but what we know to be fact is that Woody Allen and Soon-Yi are still together, nearly 30 years later. Is this an appropriate relationship between two consenting adults, or a grooming relationship between a stepfather and adopted child?

In this episode, I'll be breaking down the timeline of the Allen-Farrow relationship, and diving into the facts surrounding Dylan's allegations against Woody.

Episode Transcript-

“What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led med into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me.”

Those are the words of Dylan Farrow, daughter of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen.

Hi guys! I’m Didi West. And this is Broken Limelight!

Today’s episode is going to be a doozy. I’m going to tell you all about Woody Allen. If you don’t already know about the scandals this man is involved in, you’d better hold onto your butts because this is gonna be one hell of a ride.

First off, allow me to give you a brief overview of the facts, and then we’ll dig into the details.

Before I get started, trigger warning. This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse and incest.

In 1992, Woody Allen was accused of molesting a 7 year old girl-- Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen. Around the same time this happened, Woody Allen became involved with 21 year old Soon-Yi Previn-- a daughter of Mia Farrow’s from a previous marriage. Woody and Soon-Yi are still together and have children together, nearly 30 years later.

Woody Allen had been in a serious relationship with Mia Farrow for 12 years by this point. There’s a lot of discussion about whether or not it was inappropriate for Woody to start dating Soon-Yi. Nobody really seems to agree whether Woody was really a father figure to Mia’s kids, or if he was just like a boyfriend who popped in once in a while. And of course Woody insisted that he never molested Dylan and he thought that if it weren’t for that accusation, there would be no problem in his relationship with Soon-Yi.

So I’m going to breakdown everything I could find on the Woody-Mia dynamic throughout Mia and Woody’s 12 year relationship and how all of this started.

Like I said, this story has a lot of layers. There is a whole lot of controversy around all this. I actually went into this pretty sure that everyone knew Woody Allen was guilty, but I did my best to conduct unbiased research, and it turns out that there are a whole lot of articles and videos, and all these groups of people who are dedicated to proving Woody Allen’s innocence, and the more I dug into it, the crazier the case got. There are so many people surrounding this case who have made statements, and they all contradict each other.

For the record, I believe the allegations made against Woody Allen are true. But for the sake of accuracy, I’m going to try and look at all sides here.

So let’s get started.

Woody Allen is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-Winning Films. In 1980, Woody started a relationship with Mia Farrow, an American actress and former fashion model. Mia and Woody were together from 1980 to 1992. During that time, Mia starred in 13 of Woody’s films. They were very much like the Brad and Angelina of their day.

At the time that they met, Mia had 7 children from her previous marriage to Andre Previn. One of these children was named Soon-Yi Previn. Soon-Yi was an orphan from South Korea. She was found living in the streets and eating out of garbage cans, and she didn’t speak any known language. So she was given a presumptive birth date of October 8th, 1970 based on bone scans. She was taken in by an orphanage when she was around 6 or 7, and Mia and her then-husband, Andre Previn, adopted Soon-Yi when she was 8.

That was about 1978. In 1979, Mia and Andre Previn got divorced, and in 1980, Mia and Woody started dating.

Mia and Woody never actually lived together. Woody continues to say that he didn’t sleep over or have meals with Mia’s family, but Mia and her kids- Ronan, Dylan, Fletcher, Matthew, and Sascha, all disagree, saying that Woody would be there when they were teenagers sneaking into the house in the middle of the night, and even that he would take them on family vacations to Europe. Soon-Yi as an adult said she somehow never had any contact with Woody until she was in 11th grade, which… ok?

In 1985, Mia adopted, Dylan Farrow. At this point, Woody started spending more time at Mia’s house. Then in 1987, Woody and Mia had a baby of their own, named Satchel Ronan Farrow, who now goes by just Ronan.

Now let’s fast forward a bit. One day when Soon-Yi was in 11th grade, she hurt her foot and Woody offered her a ride to school. Again, according to Soon-Yi, they didn’t actually have much contact up until that point. This must’ve been about 1988-1990. So after that ride, I guess they started hanging out and going to basketball games together and became closer.

In 1991, Mia let Woody adopt Dylan as well as her son, Moses Farrow.

In January of 1992, Mia found nude photographs of Soon-Yi in Allen’s home. By this time, Soon-Yi was 21 and Woody was 56. Mia confronted Woody and he told her that he and Soon-Yi had been engaging in a sexual relationship for about two weeks. Now it’s unclear if at this time, Woody and Mia were still together. Woody claims they had broken up, and Mia claims that they were very much still together. So. Let’s move on.

Woody and Soon-Yi were now in love and saying shit like “the heart wants what the heart wants” and pretty much claimed that there was nothing wrong with their relationship. Woody insisted that him and Mia were not married, and that Soon-Yi was an adult. It like wasn’t a big deal to Woody or Soon-Yi that Woody was the father of some of Soon-Yi’s siblings, or that Woody was dating her mom from the time she was like 9 years old.

Then, literally like within a couple of weeks of Woody and Soon-Yi publicly declaring their love to each other, Woody was accused of molesting 7 year old Dylan Farrow.

So now, let’s get into that.

Remember when I said that Woody didn’t live with Mia, but he started hanging around more when they adopted Dylan?

Woody was very, VERY close with Dylan. In a way that was concerning.

Dylan was around 3-4 years old at this time, and this is around when Mia says she started becoming concerned about Woody’s inappropriate closeness with her. This was around 1987-88 and Mia says that Woody started going to therapy. The psychologist said that the relationship between Woody and Dylan was “inappropriately close,” but not sexual. Still, Mia thought he was overly focused on Dylan and like, stared at her a lot, and spent way too much time playing with her, and she also said that he didn’t pay nearly as much attention to their son, Ronan. So supposedly, Mia had instructed the nannies not to let Woody be alone with Dylan.

So let’s go forward to August 4th, 1992. The day of the alleged crime.

The story goes like this. Mia’s friend, Casey Pascal, came over with all her kids and her nanny, to hang out with Mia and her kids. Mia and Casey decided to go to the store, and they leave the kids with the nannies. At some point, Woody comes over. Casey Pascal’s nanny, Alison, said that she noticed she couldn’t find one of Casey’s kids, so she started looking around the house. Allegedly, Alison opened the door to a TV room and saw Dylan sitting on a couch watching tv, and Woody kneeling on the floor in front of her with his head in her lap. She doesn’t go on to say that he did anything else, just that his head was in her lap and it was not an appropriate position for a father and a little girl.

So Alison just backed out of the room and closed the door, and after they left, she told Casey about what she saw, and Casey told Mia.

Of course, Mia decided to ask Dylan about it. Dylan told her that he had touched her private parts.

I’m going to play a recording of Dylan Farrow telling Mia about it. Before I play it, I want you to keep in mind that a lot of people believe that Mia coached Dylan into telling this made up story. To me, it’s hard to believe. But this isn’t about me. So listen to this recording. I think she’s taking a bath so you are going to hear a little splashing around. Fair warning, this is not for the faint of heart.

-recording-

When Mia confronts Woody about it, he completely denies it. But he also gives literally zero information. One of my sources for this was HBO's Allen V. Farrow. It’s very very informative and has a lot of interviews from Mia’s children as well as the nanny, Alison Stickland. So in one of the episodes, they play a recording of a phone call between Mia and Woody where Mia’s asking Woody where he was on the day of the alleged sexual abuse against Dylan. And, it’s creepy as fuck. Like, Mia keeps asking him “where were you?... They were looking all over for you, where were you?... where did you take Dylan?” and he doesn’t answer her. And she just keeps pushing “where were you? What room were you in? Can you just tell me where you were?” and he’s literally silent for a lot of it. And when he does speak he’s just like “we’ll have to talk about it when the time comes.” and Mia’s just like “why can’t you tell me now?”

It’s seriously weird.

Also, before I move on from Casey Pascal, Casey had a lot to say about all of this. She actually been weirded out by Woody’s behavior in the past. She said that when she brought her kids over for playdates, it was impossible for anyone to play with Dylan because Woody would pretty much come over and bee-line to her, and he would follow her around and make her play with him, and wouldn’t play with anyone else. Not only that, but Woody wouldn’t play with any of the other kids or engage with any adults. He was intensely focused on Dylan. Casey also noticed that Dylan was staring off into space, like she was in a whole other world. And also, Dylan always seemed to get stomachaches or start feeling sick and have to go lie down when Woody would come over.

She brought this up to Mia, and Mia told her “well he’s seeing someone for it”. Mia was clearly concerned about Woody’s behavior, but as often happens in relationships like these, she hoped that it was a misunderstanding, and that’s a much easier pill to swallow. However she did once ask Casey if it was weird that Woody asked Dylan to suck his thumb. Of course, Casey thought it was creepy as fuck.

Now let’s talk about the nannies who were present on the day of the alleged abuse. First is Alison Stickland, who I mentioned before was Casey Pascal’s nanny and the one who opened the door and found Woody kneeling in front of Dylan with his head in her lap.

Then, there was Kristie Groteke? Let’s call her Nanny Kristie- who testified that she had lost track of Dylan at one point for 15-20 minutes. However, nanny #3’s version of the events contradict that. Nanny #3 is Monica Thompson, who is.. A puzzle. Originally, Monica said that Mia was a good mother, but later she said that she lied because she didn’t want to lose her job. Then, she said a whole bunch of stuff against Mia.

First of all, she said that Mia pressured her into taking her side. Monica eventually quit her job when she was subpoenaed. She said she didn’t take sides, but I want to mention that Mia’s attorney mentioned that Monica’s salary was paid by Woody, not by Mia.

She also went on to accuse Mia of abuse. She said she witnessed Mia treating her biological children better than the adopted children, and that Mia hit her children, and also that she witnessed Mia coaching Dylan. And lastly, she pretty much spoke for Nanny #2, and said that nanny Kristie was sure that Dylan wasn’t out of her sight for more than 5 minutes, even though nanny Kristie originally said it had been 15-20 minutes. Ok so let’s move on to what followed after the abuse.

So, Mia calls up the family psychologist, Dr. Susan Coates, and tells her what happened. Susan Coates is also kind of interesting, because she was seeing everyone in the family so she had a lot of insight into Mia, and Woody, and also Dylan.

So when Mia called Dr. Coates and told her about what happened to Dylan, Dr. Coates says that Mia was oddly calm. However when Mia would call Dr. Coates and talk about Soon-Yi, she would always be saying things about Woody like “he’s the devil, he needs to be stopped”. So Dr. Coates was really taken aback by Mia’s calmness when talking about sexual abuse of Dylan.

Anyway, Dr. Susan is obligated to report the abuse, and tells Mia to take Dylan to a doctor. So Mia takes Dylan to a doctor and the doctor asks her to show him where Woody had touched her, and Dylan pointed to her shoulder. Then afterwards, Mia asked her why her story changed, and Dylan said that she was embarrassed to tell the doctor the truth. After talking, they went back and Dylan told the doctor that her daddy touched her private parts.

Mia would later be accused of having coached Dylan into telling that story.

In August 1992, Woody Allen sued Mia farrow for sole custody of Ronan, Dylan, and Moses Farrow. A few days later, he released a statement declaring that he and Soon-Yi were in a relationship. That same day, Connecticut State Police announced that they were investigating Woody Allen with the focus on the allegations of sexual abuse against Dylan. Woody stands his ground and denies the allegations.

In November of 1992, Vanity Fair published a story called “Mia’s Story”, a lengthy report on the Farrow family and the abuse allegations against Woody Allen. Shortly after that, Woody Allen appeared on 60 Minutes defending himself.

In March of ‘93, a team of child-abuse investigators at Yale-New Haven Institute concluded a 7 month study into the allegations, and they determined that Dylan’s story seemed rehearsed. It basically called Dylan untrustworthy and unreliable and pointed the finger at Mia as having coached her. This is the biggest piece of “evidence” that people believe exonerated Woody Allen.

However, Mia’s legal team called that report “incomplete and inaccurate.”

One of Mia’s expert witnesses was a forensic psychiatrist named Stephen P. Herman, and he said that Dylan had been interviewed about the sexual abuse 9 times, which was unheard of. As he explains, you attempt to interview the child the least amount of times as possible to avoid re-traumatizing the child.

Also, one person who interviewed Dylan actually believed her, and believed she had something more to say. This was Jennifer Sawyer, a social worker who interviewed Dylan for the Yale-New Haven investigation.

Anyway. then, the custody trial begins. Woody Allen described how his and Mia’s relationship was beginning to disintegrate, and Mia would threaten him in phone calls and fly into rages in front of her children.

Then when Mia took the stand, she went into detail about what Dylan had told her, and stated that she had been worried that Woody Allen had been sexually attracted to Dylan since she was 2 years old.

Then, Dr. Susan Coates took the stand. This was really interesting, because Dr. Coates was the one who sat down with Woody and told him about the allegations that Dylan had made against him, and she said that was one of the worst moments of her life. She said that Woody was completely flabbergasted.

The other thing Dr. Coates revealed was that she warned Woody to stay away from Mia for his safety, because of the threats she was making against him. Mia was indeed making angry phone calls at Woody. And she had sent him a Valentine that had like drawings of the family and there were like, skewers through the hearts of the children. And Dr. Coates considered this a threat to hurt him or herself or someone else. But Mia denied that, saying it wasn’t a threat, she was just trying to depict to him that he had no concept of all the pain she had caused her and the children.

And I think I already said this, but Dr. Coates also testified that the relationship between Woody and Dylan was intensely inappropriate, but not sexual.

Then the next day, one of Mia’s lawyers stated that Dr. Coates was a sloppy record keeper, and said she was “mesmerized” by Woody Allen, and gullible in accepting his version of events.

And he went on to question her problem with Mia calling Woody evil, he said something like “is that so inaccurate? Like if he molested a child is that not evil?”

And Dr Coates was like “i dont think like that. I dont think it was evil, just an extreme case of bad judgement.”

In June of ‘93, Woody Allen lost the custody battle. Acting Justice Elliot Wilk of the state Supreme Court said that Woody Allen was self-absorbed, untrustworthy, and insensitive, and he denied him visitation rights with Dylan.

Frank Maco, a state’s attorney in Connecticut, said he had probable cause to prosecute Woody Allen, but he declined to press charges to spare Dylan the trauma of the trial. In 1994, Woody filed an appeal to the custody case, and it was denied.

In 1997, Woody married Soon-Yi Previn, and in 2001 the two of them gave a long interview to the Times magazine, declaring again “the heart wants what the heart wants.” They again denied the accusations made by Mia and Dylan.

In 2012- this is funny. On fathers day in 2012, Ronan Farrow tweeted

“Happy father’s day — or as they call it in my family, happy brother-in-law’s day.”

In 2013, Dylan Farrow now 28 years old, went on the record for the first time in an open letter with Vanity Fair, where she went into detail about the abuse. Here’s what she said:

“When I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led med into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.

For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.”

In 2014, Moses Farrow did an interview with People Magazine, where he defended Woody Allen, saying that Mia Farrow was a bully and coached her children to hate Woody. He also says that they didn’t even have a train set in the attic.

So at this point, Moses and of course Soon-Yi are the only ones defending Woody Allen.

Ok, now that I’ve presented all of that information, I’m going to stop here. But I’m not done with this case, this is only part one!! I’ll be releasing part 2 next week, and in that, I’m going to dig into the respective backgrounds of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, and give more insight into their individual interviews, testimonies, and memoirs.

That’s it for today, I really hope you enjoyed today’s episode of Broken Limelight. Remember to come back next week to hear part two of this episode. I’ll be including details about Mia and Woody’s lives up to their relationship, as well as what each one of them has to say and what they’ve claimed about the other. If you’d like to follow me on social media, you can get updates on new episodes at facebook.com/didiwestlv

Hi guys! I’m Didi West, and this is Broken Limelight.

This episode is part two of the Woody Allen story. If you haven’t already heard part one, you’re gonna wanna go back and listen to that before you listen to part two.

Guys, this case is fucking bonkers.

Once again, I’m going to try and lay down the facts with an unbiased perspective and let you form your own opinions. One of the difficult things about this cases is that for every breakthrough, there’s another breakthrough that debunks the first one. So if you’re not liking the direction this story is heading, you might wanna tough it out anyway, because things change from one second to the next, and I’m going to try to get to the very bottom of everything.

I want to reiterate that I believe Dylan Farrow. My default is to always believe the victim and the last thing I want to believe is that a woman would make up a story of abuse.

But in this episode, I did most of my research on the other side: the side that defends Woody Allen. And his side’s not pretty.

Let’s talk about Soon-Yi first.

Soon-Yi was found living in the streets in South Korea at about age 6 or 7. She was adopted by Mia Farrow and Andre Previn and was about 10 years old when Woody and Mia started dating. She said that she couldn’t stand Woody when she met him. Woody had no interest in meeting Mia’s children, and the feeling was mutual. She says that she especially hated him because she couldn’t understand how someone could be with such a nasty, mean, person like Mia and figured that he must’ve been a terrible person too.

So one day in 11th grade, Soon-Yi broke her ankle playing soccer, and she says that it was not in her vocabulary to ask Mia for help. So she limped back home, and when she got there, Woody took one look at it and saw that it was swollen and suggested she go to the doctor. Afterwards, she came back with a cast and crutches, and he offered her a ride to school.

Around this time, Woody was saying shit to Mia about how Soon-Yi was so shy and introverted and maybe she should see a shrink, and Mia suggested that they hang out together and form a friendship. So Woody and Soon-Yi started going to see Knicks games together. Soon-Yi says that she could tell the relationship with Mia and Woody wasn’t so hot anymore so she and Woody started to open up more to each other.

So like I said, Mia says that her and Woody were still together at this point. But Woody kind of describes how around this time, their relationship started falling apart. Ronan had just been born, and Mia was breastfeeding him a lot. Woody called her “obsessed” with Ronan. He says that Mia was always talking about breastfeeding Ronan til he was like 7 or 8, and she would spend all of her time locked in her bedroom, feeding Ronan. Soon-Yi says that she has memories of Dylan as a baby, crying outside of Mia’s door.

In Woody Allen’s memoir, “Apropos of Nothing,” he also says that Mia slept naked in bed with her son, Ronan. He says that one of the babysitters, Sandy, reported seeing Mia sleeping in the nude with Ronan a number of times until he was 11 years old.

This is of course a lot like Mia’s accusation of Woody being obsessed with Dylan. I’m not positive which accusation came first. However, a family spokesperson said that Mia was in her bedroom a lot because she was recovering from a difficult delivery.

Anyway, Soon-Yi and Woody are starting to get closer, and they said it was just as friends at first. But Soon-Yi thinks that Woody was surprised that she was more interesting than he had originally thought. According to her, Mia had drilled into him that Soon-Yi was a huge loser. So they started talking more and more and they watched a movie together and got into a really interesting conversation about it, and Soon-Yi thinks she must’ve impressed him, because that’s when he kissed her for the first time. She describes it as them being totally attracted to each other, like a couple of magnets.

They both thought that it would just be a fling, but apparently, it was the whole molestation charge that threw them together.

“Our relationship deepened as we went through the barrage of terrible accusations, and the paparazzi forced us to take walks only on my penthouse roof.”

So after Mia found the nude pictures of Soon-Yi--

According to soon-Yi, mia called her and told her she had the pictures, and then instead of containing the situation, Mia told absolutely everyone. Then Woody came over, and she screamed at him. Soon-Yi says that Mia would lose her shit and scream in the middle of the night for hours, while Dylan and Ronan, just 6 and 4 years old, were sleeping.

To Mia’s defense, I’m guessing that’s gotta be a hard thing to get over, and then like, impossible to explain that to her other kids, that their sister Soon-Yi is now Daddy’s girlfriend.

Woody was baffled at backlash over soon-yi and at notion that mia would take it badly.

Supposedly woody broke down and asked farrow to marry him, saying affair was probably good for soon-yi’s self esteem.

She slapped him.

So Mia kicked Soon-Yi out of the house, and she started staying with a friend for a bit. Soon-Yi wanted to come back home because she had no idea what the situation was if she wasn’t there.

So she went back hom and she said that she could hear Mia telling Woody things like “Soon-Yi regrets everything, she’s threatening to commit suicide”. Soon-Yi says that wasn’t true, but a family spokesperson says that she was indeed talking about suicide.

Soon-Yi started getting paranoid because a neighbor who was a psychologist suggested that Soon-Yi see a shrink, and she was paranoid that Mia had brainwashed him. He had also told Woody to put money away for Soon-Yi to go to college, because Mia and Andre were threatening to cut her off financially. Andre did end up cutting her off, and also said that she is no longer a daughter to him.

There was talk that Mia had hired someone to follow Soon-Yi, so she was constantly nervous. But she saw a payphone one day and she called Woody and said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not suicidal. I don’t regret anything, and whatever you need to do I understand.’ Those were my exact words. I knew he had a lot to handle and the last thing he needed to do was worry about me.”

Remember in part one when I talked about a creepy valentine Mia sent to Woody, where she stabbed skewers through the hearts of the kids?

Around that same time, Mia supposedly called Woody’s sister, Letty, and said “he took my daughter, I’m going to take his.” Letty said, “don’t be ridiculous, dylan loves woody. A child should have a father.” and mia said “i don’t care”. This is according to Letty.

Ok so in June of 92, Mia sent Soon-Yi to work at a summer camp. Soon-Yi was getting constant phone calls from a guy named Mr. Simon, who ended up actually being Woody. So soon-Yi got fired, and she went back to live with her friend Alexis. But Mia didn’t know this. In fact, she only found out that Soon-Yi wasn’t at camp because she saw paparazzi photos of her outside of Woody’s apartment. She thought that the relationship between Soon-Yi and Woody was over.

Then on August 1st, Mia calls Dr. Coates and tells her that Woody is satanic and evil and that they have to “find a way to stop him.”

Then just a couple of days later, on August 4th, is the day when Woody allegedly molested Dylan.

Ok, I think at this point you might see how Mia is now being painted in a darker light. Aside from claiming that Mia had it out for Woody and was lying because she was upset about his relationship with Soon-Yi, claims were also being made that Mia was abusive.

If you recall from part one, nanny Monica Thompson claims to have witnessed Mia slapping Moses and treating her biological children better than the adoptive children. Soon-Yi made this same exact claim.

As Soon-Yi puts it, her and her adopted sisters were used as domestics. She says that they were responsible for things like grocery shopping and cooking, cleaning the bathrooms, ironing Mia’s sheets.

Soon-Yi also said that Mia left her to her own devices and never taught her how to put on make up or use a tampon or any of that, and that she got her first bra from a babysitter. According to her friend Alexis, it was Alexis’ mom who took Soon-Yi to tour colleges.

She says that Mia was abusive towards her, saying that Mia slapped her across the face, hit her with a hair brush and called her stupid and moronic.

Soon-Yi says that she cannot think of a single good memory of Mia Farrow.

If you ask Moses, his account isn’t any better. Moses says that Mia was abusive and would brainwash the kids. Moses actually denounced Woody in 1992, and later stated that was the biggest regret of his life. As Moses explains, Mia had a way of breaking your spirit to get you to do exactly what she wanted. He describes how she would make him repeat phrases over and over again, as if rehearsing, and then smack him when he didn’t say what he wanted. She would make him admit to things he didn’t do, like moving a tape measurer. On one occasion, Moses says that he cut the belt loops off of some jeans because he thought it would look cool, and Mia took his clothes away and told him he didn’t deserve them, and she made him stand in a corner in her bedroom and let his siblings come in and look at him. Moses also denies the allegations that Dylan has made, saying that he was home before, during, and after the alleged assault. Moses is now a family therapist and has written essays on this case.

If you ask any of Mia’s other children, they’ll disagree. In HBO’s Allen V. Farrow, they interviewed Moses, Sascha, Matthew, and Matthew’s old girlfriend, and they were all specifically asked about the abuse that Moses and Soon-Yi have described, and all have denied it.

There’s one more big claim that people make against Mia. Mia had 3 children who have passed away: Lark, Tam, and Thaddeus (all adopted)

2 of the 3 deaths were possible suicides, and people speculate that this might’ve been a result of Mia’s alleged abuse toward her adopted kids.

Thaddeus passed away in 2016. He shot himself in his car, only 10 minutes away from Mia’s house. I should mention, Thaddeus has expressed his gratitude towards Mia, and the only mention I could find of the possibility of Mia being the reason for Thaddeus’ suicide, is the word of Moses.

The other possible suicide was Tam, who died in 2000.

Moses said in his blog:

Most media sources claim my sister Tam died of “heart failure” at the age of 21. In fact, Tam struggled with depression for much of her life, a situation exacerbated by my mother refusing to get her help, insisting that Tam was just “moody.” One afternoon in 2000, after one final fight with Mia, which ended with my mother leaving the house, Tam committed suicide by overdosing on pills. My mother would tell others that the drug overdose was accidental, saying that Tam, who was blind, didn’t know which pills she was taking. But Tam had both an ironclad memory and sense of spatial recognition. And, of course, blindness didn’t impair her ability to count.

The details of Tam’s overdose and the fight with Mia that precipitated it were relayed directly to me by my brother Thaddeus, a first-hand witness.

Ok so I know I’m all over the place with this, but there’s a lot to cover. So for the sake of keeping the chronology, let’s go back to August 4th 1992, the day of the alleged assault.

In part 1 I played a clip of 7 year old Dylan Farrow talking to Mia about Woody touching her. Now, I’m going to play a clip of Dylan Farrow as an adult, explaining what allegedly happened in the attic.

-clip-

So Dylan says that Woody touched her labia and vulva, but the investigators say there was no evidence of assault. This is just my opinion here and I’m no expert by any means, but if Woody simply used his fingers to touch her labia and vulva, which are external, why would there be any physical evidence? I mean from a forensic standpoint, he wouldn’t have left any DNA behind, and her hymen would remain intact if he stayed on the outside of her vagina.

I just think this is worth mentioning because it is possible for someone to be sexually assaulted and there be no physical proof of it.

So what does Woody have to say about this allegation?

-clip of woody-

I have to say, it kills me that his best defense is that if he wanted to be a child molester, he would’ve done a better job. Him and his dedicated fans insist that he’s never been accused of being a sexual predator before the alleged attic incident and they believe that proves that Woody is innocent.

So this was actually covered in Allen V. Farrow. They interviewed a world-renowned expert on sexual predators named Anna Salter. She actually explains that it’s not uncommon for a predator to become enamored and obsessed with one, single child. They feel that the child is like their soulmate and sometimes begin with a sort of, parental stalking where they’re just in the child’s face all the time and constantly want to be around them.

They also go on to say that a lot of times, the thrill is in the risk of being caught. Woody says that it would be stupid of him to go to Mia’s house and molest Dylan at a time when the house was full of people who hate him and were supposed to forbid him from being alone with Dylan. But again, from a psychological standpoint, sexual predators aren’t exactly logical all the time. This kind of thing becomes an obsession. Not only that, but it’s not uncommon for predators to find a thrill in the risk of getting caught. And if Woody Allen really, really was obsessing over being alone with Dylan, what other choice would he have? He can’t just take her to his house to be alone with her.

The other thing that Woody’s side constantly argues is that Mia Farrow coached Dylan Farrow into telling her story.

When Mia got the recording of Dylan talking about the molestation, Woody argued “why did Mia even happen to have a camera out when Dylan started talking” but everyone around Mia said that Mia was constantly recording the kids, saving every memory.

The other reason people believe that Mia coached Dylan, is because of the nanny, Monica Thompson. I mentioned Monica Thompson in part one. She claimed she saw Mia following Dylan around with a camera for 2-3 days asking her to repeat the story.

I’ll talk more about her in a minute.

I want to stay on Woody for a minute. We know the crimes he’s been accused of publicly. It turns out that, not unlike Mia, he had also been accused of abusive behavior by other family members.

Mia says that when Ronan was about 3 years old, he kicked Woody, and Woody twisted is leg and threatened to break it, until Ronan screamed and Mia pulled him off of him. She also says that Woody once pushed Dylan’s face into a plate of spaghetti.

Tisa Farrow, who is Mia’s sister, has talked about how the family was having a beach day, and Woody was putting sunblock on Dylan. His hand went down her butt and just kind of lingered there. So Mia snatched the sunblock away and finished putting it on Dylan herself.

What I think is interesting is, wouldn’t most kids react to something like that? If Dylan didn’t really react when that happens, I think we have to wonder if she’s been groomed into accepting that at this point.

At the same time, it’s strange that Mia still let Woody adopt Dylan after all this.

Monica also says that Mia had been setting the stage for weeks leading up to the allegation. Remember, Mia found out about Woody and Soon-Yi in January of ‘92, and the Dylan’s allegation came out in August of ‘92.

In July of ‘92, it was Dylan’s birthday party, and Mia wrote a note and left it on Woody’s bathroom door. It said :

“Child molestor [sic] at Birthday Party! Molded then abused one sister[.] Now focused on youngest sister[.] Family disgusted[.]”

This was weeks before the allegation came out. It’s possible that Mia started seeing signs of abuse before Dylan actually came out with it, however, if she really felt this way, why was Woody still allowed to come over?

The other strange thing that Woody constantly mentions, is that he JUST adopted Dylan and Moses in December of 1991, and Mia wrote him a glowing recommendation.

This was in her affidavit from the Supreme Court documents.

Farrow’s affidavit said Woody Allen, was “far more of a father than most natural fathers are or choose to be” and that he is “a loving, caring, attentive parent to Dylan and she can only benefit from having him as an adoptive father. He has acted as Dylan’s father almost since her birth and adoption by me….He is present with us during nearly all of Dylan’s waking hours.”

Even I have to admit, that’s pretty weird. It’s possible that she had no concern about Woody possibly being a predator until January 92, when she found the nude pics of Soon-Yi. However, she repeatedly states that she’s been worried about Woody’s behavior towards Dylan since she was 2 or 3 years old. So this part is unclear.

Now I want to talk about Dr. Susan Coates, who is the family psychologist.

So firstly, Dr. Coates, was hired to treat Dylan, not Woody. Mia was concerned about how close Dylan and Woody were, and according to Dr. Coates

“I did not see it as sexual, but I saw it as inappropriately intense because it excluded everybody else, and it placed a demand on a child for a kind of acknowledgment that I felt should not be placed on a child.”

And she advised Woody to stop giving Dylan excessive amounts of attention.

Dr. Coates was also quoted as saying:

‘Mr. Allen focused on Dylan because he felt Miss Farrow was obsessed with Satchel/Ronan,’ she testified.

For the sake of accuracy, it’s important to mention that Woody Allen was seeing a psychiatrist, Kathryn Prescott for 21 years by the time the custody battle takes place, and she says that she has never had any inclination to believe that Woody Allen was a sexual deviant in any way. He was never ordered into therapy, it’s just something he’s always done to take care of himself.

But from my research, this was not the first time Woody’s dated a young woman. Woody dated a girl named Stacey Nelkin while he was middle aged, and she was still in high school. Oddly enough, Stacey continues to defend Woody Allen and believes that Dylan made the story up. Stacey also says that when she dated Woody, she was kind of looking for a daddy, and she thinks that’s probably what Soon-Yi was looking for too.

On that same theme--

Woody once described how him and Soon-Yi actually enjoyed the 35 year age difference between them, and went on to say that he was paternal to her, and she responded to someone paternal.

Am i the only one who sees the irony? Woody was not her father figure, but he is paternal as her spouse?

And if I’m going to mention Woody’s romantic history, I should mention Mia’s. Interestingly, she has a thing for older men too. She was 21 when she married Frank Sinatra, while he was 50. And when she married Andre Previn, she was 25 while he was 41.

So, so far, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow both have questionable credibility. And in a situation like this, where both are highly respected people with money and power, I have to wonder if people are being paid off or manipulated in this case.

So with Dylan’s case:

Realistically, only two people really know what happened on August 4th 1992, and that’s Woody and Dylan. In any normal circumstance, would the predator admit to his crime? Probably not. Is it impossible for Dylan to have made the story up? It’s possible. But if we consider the very possible possibility, that Woody carefully molested Dylan so as to not leave a trace, how could we possibly expect 7 year old Dylan to defend herself and prove her story?

With Soon-Yi’s case, I think the real question is whether or not Soon-Yi was groomed or manipulated into the relationship with Woody. Let’s take a step back and look at Soon-Yi in the big picture for a second.

Remember Soon-Yi’s upbringing. She was found living on the streets at age 6 or 7 and eating out of garbage cans. She was described as having learning disabilities and speaking no language known to man. So Mia and Andre adopt her, and then divorce, and then Mia starts dating Woody.

I’m trying really hard not to paint Soon-Yi as a victim, because she’s a grown woman and that’s not her perspective. But I’m trying to understand her by putting myself in her shoes.

At 9 years old, her adoptive parents are already getting a divorce and her mom is quickly getting a new boyfriend. I can imagine these first years in the Farrow home must’ve been confusing, and that Soon-Yi probably had a hard time understanding the family dynamic. Then Woody Allen comes along and in 1985, Dylan was born and adopted by Mia Farrow.

So just for perspective, Soon-Yi is about 15 years old when she gets her new baby sister, Dylan.

Then in 1987, her baby brother Ronan is born. Nowadays it’s believed that Ronan isn’t actually Woody’s son, but rather, Frank Sinatra’s son, as Mia has admitted to having an affair with him. But anyway. Ronan was born in 1987, at which point Soon-Yi is now 17, and at the time everyone believes that Woody is the father.

That’s one of the things that makes things fuzzy for me-- Soon-Yi’s little siblings are being born, and I just don’t get how Woody’s closeness with Dylan-- whether inappropriate or not-- didn’t give her this feeling of “that’s my sister’s dad”. But, Soon-Yi isn’t the adult in this situation. Not yet anyway.

So supposedly, Woody and Soon-Yi started hanging out when she was about 18-19. You know what this reminds me of?

In episode 1 of Broken Limelight, I talked about Mackenzie Phillips. There’s a little story I didn’t mention there, where she hooked up with Mick Jagger when she was 18, and he told her “I’ve been waiting for this since you were 10 years old.” That’s fucking weird, right?

This is why I can’t get over Woody and Soon-Yi. Even if he really didn’t touch Dylan, Woody has known this woman since she was a child. This woman, who is the adopted asian child of a glamorous movie star, and is now 19 years old, is getting the attention of Woody Fucking Allen, during the prime of his career. And let’s not forget that Soon-Yi spent her childhood homeless and alone. Isn’t it possible that she has abandonment issues? Isn’t vulnerability something predators seek out? Again I’m not an expert on anything at all, I just watch a lot of criminal minds and listen to morbid podcast and shit like that. And Soon-Yi actually majored in psychology so I’m sure that’s occurred to her.

“I know this is no justification,” says Soon-Yi. “But Mia was never kind to me, never civil. And here was a chance for someone showing me affection and being nice to me, so of course I was thrilled and ran for it. I’d be a moron and an idiot, retarded… I wasn’t the one who went after Woody — where would I get the nerve? He pursued me. That’s why the relationship has worked: I felt valued. It’s quite flattering for me. He’s usually a meek person, and he took a big leap.”

Now that Woody and Soon-Yi have been together for nearly 30 years and have started their own family together, this is what Woody has to say:

“Ive been able to really make her life better. Provided her with enormous opportunities. She has sparked to them, educated went to graduate school, travelled all over. Sophisticated now. Shes a different person now. The contributions i’ve made to her life have given me more pleasure than all my films.”

Doesn’t that sound groomy af??

Ok guys, I know this episode was all over the place, but i hope you liked it anyway. I know there were a lot of ugly things said and done in this case, and I just really wanted to present you guys with facts and not my own opinion. To tell you the truth, I don’t know how anyone can listen to that recording of little baby Dylan and then go “she’s lying”.

I also want to mention, a lot of celebrities have publicly denounced Woody Allen, and a lot of them still publicly Defend Woody Allen.

First, I’m going to tell you who still defends this guy.

Scarlett Johansson

Selena Gomez

Blake Lively

Kristen Stewart

Diane Keaton

Kate Winslet originally defended hi and then said “what the fuck was i doing working with people like Woody Allen and Roman Polanski”

If you don’t know about Roman Polanski, he was convicted of raping a 13 year old girl, and many actors continued to work with him. Ironically, Mia Farrow is one of Polanski’s supporters and continues to defend him.

Cate Blanchett also continues to work with Woody Allen.

Emma Stone

Miley Cyrus

Alec Baldwin

Barbara Walters

Wallace Shawn

Jeff Goldblum

Jesse Eisenburg

Justin Timberlake

There are also a handful of people who regret working with Woody Allen.

Natalie Portan

Rebecca Hall

Elliot Page

Griffin Newman

Woody now says that he believes Dylan believes what she is saying, though the events she described never happened. Woody says that he would like to get back in touch with Dylan, should she allow it.

In 2019, Woody Allen sued Amazon. They had a deal for 4 films, and Amazon pulled out of it. A few weeks before they backed out, Woody had expressed sympathy over Harvey Weinstein and the accusations of sexual assault.

Then in an interview, Allen said he "should be the poster boy for the Me Too movement" since he had worked with "hundreds of actresses" and was "only accused by one woman in a child custody case".

So Amazon backed out and Woody sued them, and they settled for $68 million dollars.

With the #metoo movement shedding more light on Woody Allen, Woody claims that Dylan is using the movement to her advantage.

There’s one more little detail that I wanted to include and it may be irrelevant but you may find it interesting. Mia had a brother named John Charles Villiers-Farrow, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for child molestation. He abused two little boys-- one from the ages of 9 and 16, and the other from the ages of 8 to 13.

he entered an Alford plea in the case, which means he did not admit guilt, but conceded there was enough evidence for conviction. He did, however, apologize to the victims at his sentencing. Mia has never commented on this.

This could have nothing to do with anything, but Woody has implied in the past that maybe Mia flew into her rages and had an obsession with the theme of child molestation, because perhaps Mia’s father and brothers were abusive.

I know I mentioned a lot of ugly shit about Mia Farrow, but all of the articles that showed Woody’s side argued that the more credible sources, like Allen V Farrow, left out a lot of information, so I just wanted to include pretty much everything I could find.

Before I wrap this up, I am going to give my one and final opinion. And that is-- I would rather believe Dylan Farrow and be wrong, than believe Woody Allen and be wrong. And that’s all I’m gonna say.

Alright guys I hope I didn’t leave anything out. I know this case is controversial as fuck, so if you have any questions you’d like cleared up or have any more information that I neglected to include, feel free to reach out to me and maybe I’ll make a mini-episode with an update. You can always find me on facebook.com/didiwestlv, you can find Broken Limelight on YouTube and comment on my videos. If you’d like to send me a donation, you can do that at buymeacoffee.com/didiwest

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Thanks again for listening! See you next time. Bye!