Woody Allen’s son Moses Farrow defends father over sexual assault claims

Film-maker’s son says sister Dylan Farrow was coerced into making accusations and details physical abuse by Mia Farrow

Woody Allen is being condemned ‘for a crime he did not commit’, his son Moses says. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters
Woody Allen is being condemned ‘for a crime he did not commit’, his son Moses says. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters

Woody Allen and Mia Farrow's adopted son, Moses Farrow has defended his father from allegations of sexual assault made by his sister. In a nearly 5,000-word blogpost, Moses elaborated further on claims he had made in previous interviews that his mother was physically abusive to him and her other children and that she coerced her daughter Dylan into accusing Allen of assault.

“I’m a very private person and not at all interested in public attention,” Farrow wrote in the post titled A Son Speaks Out. “But, given the incredibly inaccurate and misleading attacks on my father, Woody Allen, I feel that I can no longer stay silent as he continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit.”

In 2014, Allen’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter alleging the director had sexually abused her when she was seven. Allen denies he molested his daughter. “It had been investigated by Yale and conclusions were clear and I have no interest in that whole situation,” he said in 2016. “I get harassed all the time on it. But it doesn’t affect me and I just have no interest in it.”

In the new blogpost Moses Farrow disputes the allegations made by his sister, writing: “Dylan was alone with Woody in his apartment countless times over the years without a hint of impropriety, yet some would have you believe that at the age of 56, he suddenly decided to become a child molester in a house full of hostile people ordered to watch him like a hawk.”

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Dylan Farrow responded to her brother’s claims in a statement: “As I said when he last made these claims, this is an attempt to deflect from a credible allegation made by an adult woman, by trying to impugn my mother who has only ever been supportive of me and my siblings. It’s easily disproven, contradicts years of his own statements, is beyond hurtful to me personally, and is part of a larger effort to discredit and distract from my assault. My brother is a troubled person. I’m so sorry he’s doing this.”

Allen continued his successful film-making career after Dylan Farrow's letter was published, but has faced renewed criticism in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Dozens of women have alleged Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them since October 2017, when the New York Times and Allen's son, Ronan Farrow, published investigative reports about Weinstein.

In his blogpost, Moses Farrow also accuses his mother, Mia Farrow, of physical abuse, including slapping him, and brainwashing. "For all of us, life under my mother's roof was impossible if you didn't do exactly what you were told, no matter how questionable the demand," he wrote.

When he made similar accusations in a book published in September 2017, Mia Farrow said in a statement: “Moses has cut off his entire family including his ex-wife who was pregnant when he left. It’s heartbreaking and bewildering that he would make this up, perhaps to please Woody. We all miss and love him very much.” – Guardian Service