Dylan Farrow has accused her adoptive father, Woody Allen, of “lying for so long” over allegations that he molested her when she was a child.
In her first television interview about the Oscar-winning film-maker, a tearful Dylan shared her regret that charges had never been filed against Allen over the alleged incident which is said to have taken place in 1992 when she was seven.
Allen repeated his denial of the resurfaced claim in a statement issued moments before Farrow’s interview was due to air on CBS.
In her first TV interview about the allegations, Dylan Farrow says she's speaking up again to have her voice included in the #TimesUp and #MeToo conversations. https://t.co/WFKcFb2Y9G #FarrowThisMorning pic.twitter.com/zDzx3aEv9Y
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 18, 2018
She repeated her claim that the assault took place in a small attic crawl space in her mother’s country house in Connecticut.
Asked by CBS if she wished state prosecutors had proceeded so she could give evidence, the 32-year-old replied: “You know, honestly, yes. I do wish that they had, you know, even if I’m just speaking in retrospect.
“I was already traumatised. I mean, outside of a court of law, we do know what happened in the attic on that day. I just told you.
“He’s lying and he’s been lying for so long. And it is difficult for me to see him and to hear his voice. I’m sorry,” she added, after CBS showed an archive clip of Allen denying the charges.
She said he had been her “hero”, adding: “I loved my father. I respected him.
“And that doesn’t obviously take away from what he did. But it does make the betrayal and the hurt that much more intense.”
The mother-of-one said she is “not angry” with the actors who have starred in Allen’s films, a number of whom have distanced themselves from the film-maker in recent days in the wake of the Time’s Up and Me Too movements.
She added: “I hope that, you know, especially since so many of them have been vocal advocates of this Me Too and Time’s Up movement, that they can acknowledge their complicity and maybe hold themselves accountable to how they have perpetuated this culture of silence in their industry.
“Because I have been saying this – I have been repeating my accusations unaltered for over 20 years and I have been systematically shut down, ignored or discredited.
“If they can’t acknowledge the accusations of one survivor, how are they going to stand for all of us?”
Allen was investigated over the allegation but never charged.
The 82-year-old repeated his denial of the resurfaced accusations in a statement on Thursday, which accused Dylan and and his former wife, Mia Farrow, of hijacking anti-sexual harassment movement Time’s Up.
The director said: “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.”
He said Mia, Dylan’s adoptive mother, was “relentlessly coaching” her – a claim Farrow rejected.
She told CBS: “And what I don’t understand is how is this crazy story of me being brainwashed and coached more believable than what I’m saying about being sexually assaulted by my father?”
She added: “Every step of the way, my mother has only encouraged me to tell the truth … She has never coached me.”
Farrow’s brother, journalist Ronan Farrow, was one of the first reporters to break details of the Harvey Weinstein scandal which prompted the MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns.
Since then, Allen has faced renewed questions over his alleged behaviour as he prepares for the release of his latest film, A Rainy Day In New York, in an industry coming to grips with its history of sexual harassment and abuse.