Twenty-one years ago, when I first heard that Mia Farrow had accused me of child molestation,
the idea seemed so ludicrous to me I didn't even give it a second thought. Here we are
in the middle of a terribly acrimonious breakup, with great enmity between us and a child custody
battle that was slowly gathering energy. The self-serving transparency of her malevolence
seemed so obvious that I didn't even hire a lawyer to defend myself. It was actually
my show business attorney who told me she was bringing the accusation to the police
and that I would need to hire a criminal lawyer.
So naively, I thought this accusation would just be dismissed out of hand because, I didn't
molest Dylan and any rational person would see this ploy for what it was. I mean, I'm
a 56-year-old man who had never before been accused of child molestation. And for twelve
years Mia and I had been going out and in that time she never accused me anything resembling
misconduct. So, so, suddenly, when, when driving up, to her, to her house in Connecticut one
afternoon to visit the kids for a few hours, when I'm on my raging adversary's home
turf, with half a dozen people present, and in the blissful stages of a new relationship
with Soon-Yi, the woman I would go on to marry, that, that I would pick this moment in time
to, to, to embark on a new career of child molestation? It seems so unlikely to the most
skeptical mind. The sheer illogic of such a crazy scenario just seemed dispositive.
Notwithstanding, Mia insisted that I had abused Dylan and took her immediately to a doctor
to be examined. Dylan told the doctor that she had not been molested. Mia then took Dylan
out for ice cream, and when she came back with her, the child had changed her story.
The police began their investigation, and a possible indictment hung in the balance.
I very willingly took a lie-detector test. Of course I passed because I had nothing to
hide. I asked Mia to take a lie-detector test and she refused. Last week a woman named Stacey
Nelkin, whom, I dated many years ago, she, she, she came to the press and said that Mia
had asked her to testify during our custody battle saying that she was underage when we
dated. But this wasn't true. So, so of course Stacey refused. You know, I only bring up
this anecdote because it shows the type of character we are dealing with here. Is it
any wonder that Mia wouldn't take the lie-detector test?
Meanwhile, the Connecticut police turned to a special investigative unit that they relied
on for such cases, the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Now,
this... this group of impartial, experienced men and women whom the district attorney looked
to for guidance as to whether or not to prosecute, they... they ran a meticulous investigation
for months, going over every piece of evidence, interviewing everyone involved. Finally they
came to the conclusion which I have here with me and I'll quote for you now: "It is
our expert opinion that Dylan was not sexually abused by Mr. Allen. Further, we believe that
Dylan's statements on videotape and her statements to us during our evaluation do
not refer to actual events that occurred to her on August 4th, 1992. In developing our
opinion we considered three hypotheses to explain Dylan's statements. First, that
Dylan's statements were true and that Mr. Allen had sexually abused her. Second, that
Dylan's statements were not true but were made up by... by an emotionally vulnerable
child who was caught up in a disturbed family and who was responding to the stresses in
that family. And third, that Dylan was coached or influenced by her mother, Ms. Farrow. While
we can conclude that Dylan was not sexually abused, we can not be definite about whether
the second formulation by itself or the third formulation by itself is true. We believe
that it is more likely that a combination of these two formulations best explains Dylan's
allegations of sexual abuse." Could it be any clearer? Mr. Allen did not abuse Dylan.
Most likely, a vulnerable 7-year-old was coached by Ms. Farrow.
Anyway, Mia took custody of the children and we went our separate ways. I was heartbroken.
Dylan, whom I adored and was very close to and whom Mia called my sister about in a rage
saying, "He took my daughter, now I'll take his." I never saw her again and I wasn't
able to speak with her no matter how hard I tried. I'm gonna quote Moses Farrow for
you. Moses, of course, is Dylan's older brother, who was 14 at the time and said: "My mother
drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my
sister." Moses is now 36 years old and a family therapist by profession. He says, "Of
course Woody did not molest my sister. She loved him and looked forward to seeing him
when he would visit. She never hid from him until our mother succeeded in creating the
atmosphere of fear and hate towards him." Dylan was... Dylan was 7, Ronan 4, and this
was, according to Moses, this was the narrative that was repeated steadily year after year.
I'd like to take a quick word on the Ronan situation. Is he my son or, as Mia suggests,
Frank Sinatra's? Granted, he looks like Frank with the blue eyes and the facial features,
but if this is true what does this say? That Mia constantly lied under oath during the
custody hearing falsely represented him as our son? Or, even if he's not Frank's,
the possibility she raises would indicate that she was intimate with him during our
years. Not to mention all the money I spent for child support. Was I supporting Frank's
son? I just want to call in to question the integrity and honesty of a person who conducts
her life like that.
Now 21 years later Dylan has come forward with the accusations that the Yale experts
found false. Plus she's added a few little creative flourishes that magically appeared
during our 21-year estrangement. It's not that I doubt Dylan hasn't come to believe
that she's been molested, but if you take a 7-year-old vulnerable child with a strong
mother who had been taught to hate her father, that he is a monster who abused her, is it
so inconceivable that she would come to believe this image that has been implanted in her
head by her mother? It's no wonder that the Yale experts 21 years ago picked up on
this maternal coaching aspect. Even the venue of this fabricated molestation was poorly
chosen but interesting. She chose, Mia chose the attic of her country house, a place she
should have realized, I would never go into the attic. It's tiny, and cramped, and you
can barely stand and you can't even breathe and I'm a major claustrophobe. The few times
that... that Mia asked me to go in there I had to run out immediately. I could barely
breathe in there. Anyway, undoubtedly she got the idea from the Dory Previn song, "My
Daddy in the Attic," which, coincidentally, is on the same record that Dory has a song
about Mia betraying their friendship by insidiously stealing her husband, André, "Beware of
Young Girls." You have to wonder, did... did Dylan even write this letter or was it
simply just guided by Mia? What benefit would it even serve Dylan? All I see it is advancing
the shabby agenda of her mother, which is, is, is to hurt me with a smear.
Of course, I did not molest Dylan. I loved her and hope one day she will grasp how she
has been cheated out of having a loving father and exploited by a mother more interested
in her own festering anger than her daughter's well-being. Being taught to hate your father
and made to believe he molested you has already taken a psychological toll on this lovely
young woman. Being taught to hate your father and made to believe he molested you has already
taken a psychological toll on this lovely young woman.
Soon-Yi and I both hope that one day she will understand who has really made her the victim
here and reconnect with us, as Moses has, in a loving, productive way. No one wants
to discourage abuse victims from speaking out, but one must bear in mind that sometimes
people are falsely accused and that is also a terribly destructive thing. This is my final
word on the matter. No one will be commenting on my behalf to any other comments.
Enough people have been hurt.
Thanks to Pinterest, I can make my own cleaning supplies that get rid of the worst stains.
Even blood! My mother-in-law will have nothing to say anymore.