Woody Allen's wife, Soon-Yi Previn, exchanged emails with Jeffrey Epstein for several years. Photo / Andreas Rentz, Getty Images
Woody Allen's wife, Soon-Yi Previn, exchanged emails with Jeffrey Epstein for several years. Photo / Andreas Rentz, Getty Images
Disgraced filmmaker Woody Allen’s wife Soon-Yi Previn emailed Jeffrey Epstein criticising the #MeToo movement, newly released emails show.
According to the Guardian, Previn was in correspondence with the late financier and convicted sex offender for several years, even receiving his assistance with her daughter’s university application.
The 55-year-old sent Epsteinvarious articles reporting on celebrity sexual misconduct, emailing him to complain about the increasing scrutiny arising out of the anti-sexual assault movement.
“Just as the Me Too movement has gone to far so has Botox [sic]”, she wrote in one 2018 subject line.
As the adopted daughter of Allen’s former partner Mia Farrow, Previn’s marriage to the Annie Hall director has been the subject of scrutiny since Farrow accused him of grooming.
Allen began dating Farrow when Previn was 11 years old, sharing son Ronan and two adopted children, Moses and Dylan, with the actress.
The 90-year-old was accused of sexually abusing Dylan in 1992 amidst his messy split with Farrow, facing renewed public backlash after she detailed her allegations in a 2014 open letter.
Soon Yi Previn and Woody Allen started dating in 1991, ending his long-term partnership with Previn's mother, Mia Farrow. Photo / Ron Galella, Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
The couple’s long friendship with Epstein, who was convicted of soliciting an underage girl in 2008, began when they lived in the same neighbourhood and continued right up until just months before his death.
Previn’s emails highlight her frustration with the wave of “cancellations” related to sexual assault.
Sending Epstein a Daily Mail article about former congressman Anthony Weiner, who became a convicted sex offender after he was caught texting a teenage girl, she said: “You have to feel sorry for him.
“I also thought it was disgusting what the 15-year-old did to him. I hate women who take advantage of guys, and she is definitely one of them.
“She knew exactly what she was doing and how vulnerable [Weiner] was and she reeled him in like fish to bait,” she wrote. “What is her excuse for being a despicable and disgusting person who preys on the [weak]?”
The former teacher has been publicly reticent about the narrative around her marriage to Allen, denying in a statement to Newsweek that he was ever a father figure to her or that she had been “some retarded little underage flower”.
Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn have been married since 1997 and share two children together. Photo / Bruce Glikas, WireImage
Allen, for his part, claims their sexual relationship started in December 1991 when she was a 21-year-old university student, describing his wife as having “responded to someone paternal”.
The couple have now been married for nearly 30 years and share two adopted daughters.
Previn has continued to support Allen throughout the controversy, even as several of the auteur’s former collaborators have denounced him.
In a joint statement to the Hollywood Reporter, the couple slammed the 2021 HBO documentary series recounting the allegations as a “hatchet job riddled with falsehoods”.
“As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place.”
