Dylan Farrow Open Letter: "Woody Allen Sexually Assaulted Me At Age 7"

The adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, Dylan Farrow, has penned an open letter published on The New York Times' website which clarifies that she was sexually abused by Allen at age 7.


"(W)hen I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me 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," Farrow, now 28, wrote in a bombshell open letter posted on Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's blog.

In an editors note at the top of the Times blog post, Kristof wrote that the letter was "the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public." The renewed accusations emerge as Allen's "Blue Jasmine" was nominated for three Academy Awards, including best original screenplay for the famous director.

Farrow also wrote that big A-listers have turned a "blind eye" to the accusations and specifically asked Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin and Louis C.K., who all participated in "Blue Jasmine": "What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?"

"Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up," Dylan wrote, noting: "That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, "who can say what happened," to pretend that nothing was wrong. Actors praised him at awards shows. Networks put him on TV. Critics put him in magazines."

Farrow went on: "Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse."

On January 12, after Diane Keaton accepted Allen's Golden Globes honor, Ronan Farrow, the son of Allen, tweeted: "Missed the Woody Allen tribute - did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?"

Allen, now 78, and Mia Farrow, now 68, broke up as a couple in 1992.


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