Woody Allen responds to Dylan Farrow claims: 'I never molested my daughter'

Woody Allen, writing in The New York Times in 2014, denied longstanding claims that he molested his daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was a girl in 1992. That piece was meant as his “final word on this entire matter.” But in light of Farrow’s first television interview with CBS This Morning about her accusations, the Wonder Wheel filmmaker addressed the situation again in a lengthy statement.

“When this claim was first made more than 25 years ago, it was thoroughly investigated by both the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital and New York State Child Welfare,” read the statement, which was released on Thursday when Farrow’s full interview aired. “They both did so for many months and independently concluded that no molestation had ever taken place. Instead, they found it likely a vulnerable child had been coached to tell the story by her angry mother during a contentious breakup.

“Dylan’s older brother Moses has said that he witnessed their mother doing exactly that – relentlessly coaching Dylan, trying to drum into her that her father was a dangerous sexual predator,” Allen continues. “It seems to have worked – and, sadly, I’m sure Dylan truly believes what she says. But even though the Farrow family is cynically using the opportunity afforded by the Time’s Up movement to repeat this discredited allegation, that doesn’t make it any more true today than it was in the past. I never molested my daughter – as all investigations concluded a quarter of a century ago.”

Frank Maco, a former prosecutor for the state of Connecticut, told CBS This Morning there was “no manipulation by Mia Farrow” and “nothing in the state police investigation indicated Dylan was controlled or manipulated by her mother.”

Farrow also said in 2014, “My memories are mine. I remember them. [Mia] was distraught when I told her. When I came forward with my story she was hoping against hope that I had made it up. In one of the most heartbreaking conversations I have ever had, she sat me down and asked me if I was telling the truth. She said that Dad said he didn’t do anything. And I said, ‘He’s lying.'”

Moses, Farrow’s brother, defended his father in Eric Lax’s book, Start to Finish: Woody Allen and the Art of Moviemaking. “Now that I no longer live in fear of her rejection, I am free to share how [Mia] cultivated and brainwashed me,” he said.

The report from the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Allen cites was also mentioned in his NY Times piece from four years ago. It read in part, “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,” the date Farrow Allen molested her.

A child psychologist testifying on behalf of Mia in her custody trial with Allen in 1993 argued the report was “seriously flawed,” and the judge (as reported by The Times) ultimately determined, “I am less certain, however, than is the Yale-New Haven team, that the evidence proves conclusively that there was no sexual abuse.”

Allen has long denied these accusations and was never charged with a crime. However, in light of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and other men in Hollywood, Farrow penned an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times that called out actors who’ve worked with Allen and not denounced him over her claims.

“We’ve gotten very attached to this concept that in order for a victim or accuser to come forward credibly that they have to be flanked by 49 other people. This is absolute garbage,” she now tells Gayle King on CBS This Morning. “It shouldn’t have to be that a small army has to come forward against one person to be credible. I have come forward with evidence and I am credible and I am telling the truth and I think it’s important that people realize that one victim, one accuser, matters, and that they are enough to change things.”

Watch a new clip from her interview above.