Ronan Farrow is defending his mother and sister Dylan Farrow one day after his adopted brother Moses penned an essay disputing Dylan’s claims that she was molested by their father Woody Allen.
The 30-year-old journalist took to Twitter Thursday to shoot down his 40-year-old brother’s claims that their mother Mia Farrow abused them as children and reiterated his belief in his sister Dylan, 32, who has said their father sexually abused her as a little girl.
‘Not worth saying much to dignify the repeated campaign to discredit my sister, often by attacking our mother,’ Ronan wrote in his statement on Thursday. ‘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.’
He continued, ‘Our brother Moses said the same thing in statements dating back many years. 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. We all grew up with offers from him 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.).
‘I believe my sister,’ Ronan added.
Ronan Farrow, 30, defended his mother and sister in a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday
The post came one day after his adoptive brother Moses Farrow defended their father Woody Allen and said mother Mia was abusive
Son speaks out: Moses Farrow (left) on Wednesday hit out at his adoptive mother Mia (pictured together in 2002), claiming that she brainwashed his sister Dylan into falsely accusing Woody Allen of molesting her as a child
Big happy family: Moses is pictured with his adoptive mother, father and two siblings in 1989 – just three years before the couple’s scandalous split
Ronan’s response came one day after Moses came to his father’s defense in a detailed blogpost insisting that the Hollywood director did not molest his sister Dylan and accusing their mother of being abusive and manipulative.
Moses, 39, was adopted by Mia Farrow from South Korea in 1980, and Allen adopted him as well in 1992, along with Dylan.
Just a few months later, Mia and Woody ended their 12-year relationship after it emerged that the filmmaker was having an affair with his adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who is 35 years his junior.
During a bitter custody battle that ensued between Mia Farrow and Allen, allegations arose that the Manhattan director sexually assaulted Dylan when she was seven years old.
Allen, who went on to marry Previn in 1997, was investigated over the rape claims but was never charged. The Midnight In Paris director has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Farrow won custody of the couple’s three children: Dylan, Moses and Ronan. Allen was stripped of visitation rights with Dylan.
Allen’s infidelity, the ugly legal tug-of-war and the accusation of molestation split their family into factions, with Moses’ brother Ronan taking Mia and Dylan’s side.
Ronan in recent years has emerged as a respected journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize this year for his coverage of the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal.
In his 4,600-word personal essay titled ‘A Son Speaks Out,’ Moses, who now works as a therapist, writes that on August 4, 1992 – the day of the alleged assault – he was present in the family’s country house in Bridgewater, Connecticut, and that Allen was never allowed to be alone with Dylan.
‘Along with five kids, there were three adults in the house, all of whom had been told for months what a monster Woody was,’ he writes. ‘None of us would have allowed Dylan to step away with Woody, even if he tried.’
In her viral 2014 open letter published in the New York Times, which opened Allen to a new round of scrutiny, Dylan, now aged, 32, described in detail the alleged rape in the attic.
‘He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set,’ she recalled. ‘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.
Moses (pictured in a sweater vest) claimed that Mia Farrow (bottom left) was physically and emotionally abusive towards him and the other kids
Moses (pictured in glasses), insisted that Allen (far left) did not sexually assault his sister Dylan (pictured in Mia’s arms) in 1992 when she was seven years old
‘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.’
But according to Moses, Dylan’s vivid narrative is riddled with falsities: there was no electric train in the attic because it was a cramped, unfinished crawl space where the children were not allowed to play because it bristled with exposed nails and mousetraps.
‘The idea that the space could possibly have accommodated a functioning electric train set, circling around the attic, is ridiculous,’ Moses writes. ‘Now, whenever I hear Dylan making a public statement about what allegedly happened to her that day when she was barely seven, I can only think of that imaginary train set, which she never brought up during the original investigation or custody hearing.’
In his account, Moses reserves his most withering scorn for his estranged mother, whom he describes as physically and emotionally abusive, controlling and calculating.
He recounts one incident that happened between the first and second grade, in which Farrow allegedly slapped him across the face because she suspected that he took a tape measure, and then forced him to issue an apology, which he said she made him rehearse a dozen times.
Daughter and wife: Allen began an affair with his adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn and married her in 1997. Pictured: Previn and Allen attend The Art Show Gala Preview at Park Avenue Armory on February 27, 2018 in New York City
‘That was the start of her coaching, drilling, scripting, and rehearsing – in essence, brainwashing,’ he said of Mia.
In another instance, Moses claimed his mother dragged him into the bathroom and ‘hit me uncontrollably all over my body’ after a dispute over curtains, which she claimed Moses had closed against her wishes.
‘I was defeated, deflated, beaten and beaten down. Mia had stripped me of my voice and my sense of self,’ he writes.
Moses also mentioned another occasion when his mother allegedly punished him for cutting a new pair of jeans by having him strip off his clothes and stand naked in the corner in front of his siblings.
And according to Moses, he was not the only target of Mia’s wrath: the actress would allegedly drag his siblings, some of whom were disabled, down a flight of stairs and lock them in bedrooms or closets as punishment for minor transgressions.
He said Soon-Yi, who had an independent streak, was Mia’s favorite scapegoat, and that one time when she was young, their mother hurled a porcelain centerpiece at her head.
Dylan Farrow responded to her estranged brother’s essay on Twitter Wednesday
The thrust of Moses’ post, which reprises some of the claims that he made last year during conversations with a Woody Allen biographer Eric Lax, is that Mia Farrow, now aged 73, coached and brainwashed Dylan into falsely accusing Allen of molesting her in order to win the custody battle, and also take revenge on him for his affair with Soon-Yi.
At the conclusion of his essay, Moses addresses the actors who he says have rushed to condemn his father ‘based on ‘a discredited accusation’ out of fear of being on the wrong side of the #MeToo movement.
‘I was there – in the house, in the room – and I know both my father and mother and what each is capable of a whole lot better than you,’ he writes.
To his sister Dylan, he wished peace and ‘wisdom to understand that devoting your life to helping our mother destroy our father’s reputation is unlikely to bring you closure in any kind of lasting way.’
Finally, he turns his attention to his mother Mia, saying they both know the truth and assuring her that he is prepared for her campaign to discredit him.
‘I know it comes with the territory. And it’s a burden I am willing to bear,’ he writes.
Dylan Farrow responded to her brother’s latest statements defending their father on Wednesday afternoon, 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.
‘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.
‘My brother is a troubled person. I’m so sorry he’s doing this.’