Sunday, 2 February 2014

Woody Allen's daughter reveals how he sexually abused her at 7.

In her own words: Dylan Farrow, pictured here as a child in 1988 with her adoptive father, Woody Allen, wrote a candid first-person account accusing the filmmaker of sexually abusing her since she was seven years old
Dylan Farrow
Woody Allen's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow penned an open letter Saturday on a New York Times blog, publicly accusing the controversial filmmaker of sexually assaulting her when she was a young girl.
Farrow's first-person account, which appeared on reporter Nicholas Kritoff's blog, marks the first time that Miss Farrow, the daughter of actress Mia Farrow, has directly addressed the alleged sex abuse.
In gut-wrenching detail, Dylan Farrow wrote in her statement how at age seven, her adoptive father, Allen, allegedly led her by the hand to a dim attic on the second floor of their house.
'He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set,' Miss Farrow recounted. 'Then he sexually assaulted me. 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.'
She noted that to this day, she finds it hard to look at toy trains.
Farrow went on to describe how the award-winning director of 'Annie Hall' and 'Manhattan' would always find a way to touch her and do things to her she did not like, including sticking his thumb in her mouth, forcing her to get into bed with him and placing his head in her naked lap.
'I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different,' she said.
Shocking details: Miss Farrow, depicted with Allen and her mother, Mia Farrow, in 1987, described how at age 7, the filmmaker allegedly led her into the attic and sexually assaulted her as she lay on her stomach and looked at a toy train setUnable to keep her alleged encounters with her father secret anymore, young Dylan went to her mother, asking her if her own father used to do the same things to her that Allen was doing.
The girl's explosive allegations put an end to Farrow and Allen's relationship in 1992, setting off a legal battle in which Dylan claimed the filmmaker accused his former girlfriend of brainwashing her daughter into thinking that he had assaulted her.

Shorlty after Allen and Farrow's split, it was revealed that the filmmaker began an affair with his adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, whom he married in 1997.
On Saturday night, just hours after the release of his daughter's bombshell letter, a somber-looking Allen was spotted arriving at a New York Knicks game in New York with two of his other adopted daughters in tow. 
In her open letter, Dylan Farrow claimed that Allen used his ‘sexual relationship’ with her stepsister, Soon-Yi, to cover up the abuse Dylan herself had allegedly suffered at his hands. 
Scandalous relationship: Dylan Farrow accused her father of using his affair with his adopted daughter Soon-Yi (right) to cover up his abuse of her; the two married in 1997Dylan Farrow's decision to offer a first-person account of her torment has been spurred by Allen's latest nomination for an Academy Award and last month’s Golden Globes ceremony, where he received the prestigious Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award.

Read her letter below:

What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when 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. 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. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.

For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.

When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing to attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child.

After a custody hearing denied my father visitation rights, my mother declined to pursue criminal charges, despite findings of probable cause by the State of Connecticut – due to, in the words of the prosecutor, the fragility of the “child victim.” Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. 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. Each time I saw my abuser’s face – on a poster, on a t-shirt, on television – I could only hide my panic until I found a place to be alone and fall apart.

Last week, Woody Allen was nominated for his latest Oscar. But this time, I refuse to fall apart. For so long, Woody Allen’s acceptance silenced me. It felt like a personal rebuke, like the awards and accolades were a way to tell me to shut up and go away. But the survivors of sexual abuse who have reached out to me – to support me and to share their fears of coming forward, of being called a liar, of being told their memories aren’t their memories – have given me a reason to not be silent, if only so others know that they don’t have to be silent either.

Today, I consider myself lucky. I am happily married. I have the support of my amazing brothers and sisters. I have a mother who found within herself a well of fortitude that saved us from the chaos a predator brought into our home.

But others are still scared, vulnerable, and struggling for the courage to tell the truth. The message that Hollywood sends matters for them.

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 is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.


Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?

3 comments:

  1. Not surprised, Allen is weird and I hate his movies, something odd about him

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  2. This is really sick but am glad she rose above the abuse. Woody should be locked up and his award retrieved.

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