Woody Allen Opens Up About Controversial Marriage With Soon-Yi Previn

Woody Allen’s film Cafe Society will soon be released, and he recently opened up about his life and his marriage with Soon-Yi Previn in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

“She’s a great companion and a great wife. She has given me a stable and wonderful home life and great companionship,” Woody Allen said of Previn. “I guess whenever you meet somebody and they’re the right person for you, there is a great emotional contribution they make to your life.”

Woody Allen is over 30 years older than Previn, according to Page Six, and their relationship started when Allen was dating Mia Farrow, who had adopted Previn.

Allen dated Farrow in the 1980s, and there was much controversy about him dating the adopted daughter of his former lover. Previn and Woody Allen were married in 1997.

“She had a very, very difficult upbringing in Korea: She was an orphan on the streets, living out of trash cans and starving as a 6-year-old,” Allen said. “And she was picked up and put in an orphanage. And so I’ve been able to really make her life better. I provided her with enormous opportunities, and she has sparked to them. She’s educated herself and has tons of friends and children and got a college degree and went to graduate school, and she has traveled all over with me now.”

Cafe Society will be Woody Allen’s 47th film, and it’s about a man in the 1930s trying to make it in the film industry.

Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn have two daughters, and Allen said he doesn’t read what the tabloids say about him or his relationship.

“I never, ever, ever read anything about myself,” Allen said. “Not my interviews, not stories about me. I never, ever read any criticism of my films. I scrupulously have avoided any self-preoccupation.”

Woody Allen said he was not traumatized by the scandal around him dating Previn, and he no longer has any relationship with Mia Farrow. He said Previn has given him a lot of pleasure in his life, and he doesn’t think he’s changed much since their relationship began.

Allen previously described his relationship with Previn as “paternal,” during an interview with NPR, and he said he’s had a big impact on her life.

“I started the relationship with her and I thought it would just be a fling,” Allen said. “It wouldn’t be serious, but it had a life of its own. And I never thought it would be anything more. Then we started going together, then we started living together, and we were enjoying it. And the age difference didn’t seem to matter. It seemed to work in our favor actually.”

Woody Allen has had a complex and scandalous relationship with Mia Farrow beyond him starting a relationship with her adopted daughter. Farrow’s other daughter, Dylan, claimed in 2014 that she was molested by Woody Allen.

“That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up,” Dylan Farrow wrote at the time. “I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself.”

Farrow said that people just assumed there would be no way to confirm her stories and ignored her claims. She said that despite what she said happened, he continued to be a success in the film industry.

Allen isn’t even sure what Mia Farrow is doing anymore.

“‘I don’t think she lives in New York,” he said. “I think she lives in Connecticut. I’m not sure. Or travels for UNICEF or something.”

Farrow is working as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in Connecticut.

[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]