Dylan Farrow: Allen Abuse 'Haunted Me'

Adopted daughter recounts sex assault, blasts Hollywood for celebrating director
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 2, 2014 7:02 AM CST
Dylan Farrow: Allen Abuse 'Haunted Me'
This Jan. 12, 1993 file photo shows Woody Allen arriving at State Supreme Court in Manhattan for a hearing in which he requested more liberal visitation rights with his children in his dispute with Mia Farrow.   (AP Photo/Mario Cabrera, File)

After last month's Golden Globes tribute kicked up controversy over decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against Woody Allen, his accuser—adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, now 28 and living under a different name in Florida—is stepping forward to give her side of the story. In an open letter to family friend Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, she writes: "What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?" before going on to describe in detail years of abuse by Allen, including a sexual assault she says she suffered at the age of 7. Allen, notes Kristof, "denies the allegations, has never been convicted and should be presumed innocent." (A Connecticut prosecutor at the time said there was enough evidence to prosecute Allen, but dropped charges to spare Dylan.)

Allen declined to comment. But for Farrow, "That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye." Farrow says she was diagnosed with PTSD last year, and has struggled with an eating disorder and self-harm. The Globes' lifetime achievement award, she says, "felt like a personal rebuke ... a way to tell me to shut up and go away." She continues, "You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?" She circles back to the assault she says took place in an attic. "Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?" Her full account is here. (More Woody Allen stories.)

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