Woody Allen's Golden Globe lifetime achievement award reignited a debate about past charges of child sexual abuse against the Hollywood director, and now his alleged victim has decided to add her voice to the debate.
Dylan Farrow, daughter of Allen's ex-girlfriend, actress Mia Farrow, wrote an open letter in the The New York Times about allegedly being abused by Allen when she was 7 years old. NYT journalist Nicholas Kristof contacted Dylan through his friendship with Mia and her son Ronan Farrow.
See also: Mia and Ronan Farrow Resurrect 20-Year-Old Woody Allen Scandal
Allen has never been convicted of any wrongdoing in the case. However, despite his presumed innocence under the law, Kristof decided to publish the letter, saying it's important for "the world to hear Dylan’s story in her own words."
"He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me," Farrow wrote. "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."
Allen has consistently denied the allegations against him since his breakup with Mia Farrow in 1992.
The writer and director did not, however, deny his sexual relationship with Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. The two had an affair beginning while Allen and Farrow were still dating; Previn was around 19 at the time. After Farrow and Allen broke up, Allen married Previn in 1997. The two remain married, and have two daughters together.
In her letter, Dylan Farrow wrote that the situation caused her grief, guilt and anxiety throughout her life. She said she developed an eating disorder and cut herself.
Farrow is now married and now goes by a different name. She wrote that she "refuse[s] to fall apart" and feels lucky to have the support of her family to help her cope with the past. Farrow said she penned the letter to alert people that the "message that Hollywood sends matters" for sexual-abuse victims.
"Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse," Farrow concluded.
Read Farrow's entire letter, here.
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