Dylan Farrow didn’t spare any details in her first televised interview about the alleged sexual abuse by her adoptive father, Woody Allen.
On CBS This Morning with Gayle King, Farrow recounted the 1992 assault, which she said occurred when her mother Mia Farrow was out shopping. Allen allegedly touched Farrow inappropriately.
“As a 7-year-old, I would have said he touched my private parts,” Farrow said.
When Mia Farrow learned what had happened, she took her daughter to the doctor. However, once there, Farrow said Allen only touched her shoulder. She told her mother she was embarrassed — but she eventually told the doctor the same thing she did her mother.
Allen used this against Farrow, claiming that she was coached by her mother because she discovered he was having an affair with their adopted daughter, Soon-yi Previn.
Farrow denied this in the interview, and said her mom only encouraged her to tell the truth.
“What I don’t understand is how this crazy story of me being brainwashed and coached is more believable than what I’m saying about being sexually assaulted by my father,” Farrow said in the interview.
When King played a clip of Allen denying the allegations, Farrow began crying.
“He’s lying and he’s been lying for so long. And it’s difficult for me to see him and hear his voice,” She said.
Allen has always denied Farrow’s allegations, and maintained that sentiment in a statement about her interview to CBS:
“When this claim was first made more than 25 years ago, it was thoroughly investigated by both the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital and New York State Child Welfare. They both did so for many months and independently concluded that no molestation had ever taken place. Instead, they found it likely a vulnerable child had been coached to tell the story by her angry mother during a contentious breakup.
Dylan’s older brother Moses has said that he witnessed their mother doing exactly that – relentlessly coaching Dylan, trying to drum into her that her father was a dangerous sexual predator. It seems to have worked – and, sadly, I’m sure Dylan truly believes what she says.
But even though the Farrow family is cynically using the opportunity afforded by the Time’s Up movement to repeat this discredited allegation, that doesn’t make it any more true today than it was in the past. I never molested my daughter – as all investigations concluded a quarter of a century ago.”
Allen was indeed never charged or found guilty; however, Frank Maco, the former Connecticut state prosecutor who worked on the case, said “there was probable cause to charge Allen, but Dylan Farrow was too fragile for the high-profile trial,” according to the Washington Post.
Farrow has maintained the sexual assault allegations since 1992, and the story resurfaced and gained traction in 2014 when Farrow penned an open letter about the abuse in The New York Times. She also linked Allen to the #MeToo movement in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in December.