Woody Allen's Son Moses Farrow Defends Father, Claims Mother Mia Farrow Was Abusive

Allen and Mia Farrow's son restates that his mother was abusive — allegations the actress has strongly denied — in a new blog post.

Moses Farrow, son of exes Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, shared a blog post Wednesday defending his father against claims of sexual abuse, and resurfaced claims that his mother was abusive to him and his siblings.

In Moses' account — titled "A Son Speaks Out" — the family therapist and photographer alleges that Mia Farrow was physically and emotionally abusive toward him and her other children. In one excerpt, Moses claims that he "witnessed siblings, some blind or physically disabled, dragged down a flight of stairs to be thrown into a bedroom or a closet, then having the door locked from the outside."

Moses also alleges that Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn "was her most frequent scapegoat." In 1992, Allen entered a scandalous affair with Soon-Yi, whom he later married, ultimately ending his relationship with Mia Farrow and launching a contentious custody battle over their kids, both biological and adopted.

"When Soon-Yi was young, Mia once threw a large porcelain centerpiece at her head. Luckily it missed, but the shattered pieces hit her legs," Moses claims. "Years later, Mia beat her with a telephone receiver."

Moses, who was adopted from South Korea as a toddler by a single Mia Farrow and then later co-adopted by Allen in 1991, leveled similar abuse allegations in 2017 during conversations with author Eric Lax. Lax included Moses' quotes in a biography of Allen. Mia Farrow responded to Moses' claims in a statement at the time. "It’s heartbreaking and bewildering that he would make this up, perhaps to please Woody," the actress said.

While speaking to Lax, Moses also commented on his sister Dylan's allegations that Allen molested her as a child, claiming the filmmaker never did any such thing. In his Wednesday blog post, Moses doubled down on his stance that Allen — who was never charged after an investigation, and has denied Dylan's claims for decades — is innocent.

"Along with five kids, there were three adults in the house, all of whom had been told for months what a monster Woody was," writes Moses. "None of us would have allowed Dylan to step away with Woody, even if he tried."

Dylan Farrow responded to her brother's post later on Wednesday, calling him a "troubled" person.

"As I said when he last made these claims, this is an attempt to deflect from a credible allegation made by an adult woman, by trying to impugn my mother who has only ever been supportive of me and my siblings," she said in a statement posted to Twitter. "It's easily disproven, contradicts years of his own statements, is beyond hurtful to me personally, and is part of a larger effort to discredit and distract from my assault."

Her statement continued, "My brother is a troubled person. I'm so sorry he's doing this."

On Thursday, Ronan Farrow responded to Moses' blog post in a tweet defending both Dylan and Mia Farrow.

"Not worth saying much to dignify the repeated campaign to discredit my sister, often by attacking our mother. This happens every time Dylan speaks, so this is all I'll offer: my mother did an extraordinary job raising us, and none of my siblings with whom I've spoken ever witnessed anything but love and care from a single mom who went through hell to keep her kids safe. Our brother Moses said the same thing in statements dating back many years," he wrote. "After relentless legal scrutiny of my mother's parenting — and efforts to discredit her — she was granted sole custody to protect us from Woody Allen."

The journalist continued: "We all grew up with offers to speak out against our mother in exchange for support. (He made helping to pay for my college education contingent on turning against her and lying. I declined.) My sister's allegation is backed by a significant body of credible evidence, including physical evidence and eyewitnesses to abuse. I hesitated to speak on this only because I didn't want to draw attention to a smear campaign that has been running since Dylan's pediatrician first called the police almost 30 years ago. I believe my sister."

Read Moses Farrow's entire blog post here. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Mia Farrow for comment.

May 23, 1:50 p.m. Updated with Dylan Farrow's statement.

May 24, 11:55 a.m. Updated with Ronan Farrow's statement.