Woody Allen and Soon Yi Previn Call Farrow Documentary a "Hatchet Job"

It's always shocking when a documentary comes to light that suggests widely celebrated and successful public figures are guilty of unspeakable crimes. Michael Jackson's estate won a $100 million appeal case against HBO for the network's Leaving Neverland documentary for their disparaging remarks against the pop icon, which stirred a ton of controversy online. 

The same is now happening with the Allen v. Farrow documentary, and many folks are wondering: Are Woody Allen and Soon Yi still together?

Woody Allen has long been criticized after it was learned that the director had developed romantic feelings for his ex-wife Mia Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon Yi Previn. She married Allen in 1997 when he was 62 years old and she was 27. Allen was castigated for behavior that many called, at the time, "predatory." 

There were rumors that he had "groomed" Soon Yi from a young age, rumors that people found increasingly more disturbing after allegations surfaced from ex Mia Farrow that the comedian had molested her adopted daughter, Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow. During the #metoo movement, the allegations that he was guilty of inappropriately touching the child began circulating social media again.

In the HBO documentary Allen v. Farrow, those rumors were given new life yet again. The docu-series highlights the ups and downs of Allen and Farrow's relationships and includes recordings of phone calls between the couple. What troubled viewers the most, however, was footage of a then 7-year-old Dylan describing what appears to be sexual abuse at the hands of Allen.

Dylan tweeted about the video, writing, "I decided to let them share it in the hopes that Little Dylan’s voice might now help others suffering in silence feel heard, understood, and less alone. I hope this tape helps us all find ways to allow painful secrets to come safely out their closets so we can all heal and move forward in strength and peace. No longer ashamed, buried, scared, sad and silent."

Representatives for Woody Allen and Soon Yi Previn have released a statement on behalf of the couple to ET. It states, "These documentarians had no interest in the truth. Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods."

The statement continued, "As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place. It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO – which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow. While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts."

As per CNN, Engelhardt stated that she met Allen when she was 16 years old, but their relationship became sexual only after she turned 17 years old, which was and still is the legal age of consent in the state of New York. She told the news outlet, "I don’t have anything negative toward him, he meant a lot to me. He didn’t hurt or help me. I was very much in love with him."

She continued, "I was naïve. He certainly liked me … I was a bright-eyed kid, I thought he was the greatest thing." She also went on to say that she believed a part of their relationship may have inspired him to write Manhattan, which is a film about a TV writer who ultimately dates a girl who is still in high school after his wife leaves him.

"I didn’t think of myself as a victim. I went into New York, I got on the bus, I was looking at this man who was magical – he was brilliant. There are unusual relationships where you are not a victim. You can have a big age gap. I know I told the story more than anything not to go against the Me Too movement – I want the people who hurt me to pay the price. But, there are people who fall in love."