February 11, 2018

Dylan Farrow Responds to New York Times Article Doubting Her Woody Allen Story: ‘I’ve Consistently Stated the Truth’

Following a New York Times article casting doubt on her allegations against Woody Allen, Dylan Farrow has defended her account in a series of tweets. The piece, Bret Stephens’ “The Smearing of Woody Allen,” says that the evidence against Allen is not as strong as it is against Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, making it dangerous to automatically assume his guilt; Farrow’s response argues that “to presume I invented this story & convinced myself of it is no less insulting than calling me a liar.”

In his article, Stephens writes that “an in-depth, contemporaneous and independent investigation into the allegations, conducted over several months by the Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1992 and 1993, noted that there were ‘important inconsistencies in Dylan’s statements,’ and that ‘her descriptions of the details surrounding the alleged events were unusual and were inconsistent.’ It concluded categorically: ‘It is our expert opinion that Dylan was not sexually abused by Mr. Allen.’”

He also claims that “it’s precisely because Dylan’s account plays to our existing biases that we need to treat it with added skepticism. Most parents know that young children are imaginative and suggestible and innocently prone to making things up.”

Farrow notes that “there is much more information [Stephens] can find on my case than what he cites in his piece” and “it’s Stephens’ right to doubt me if he so chooses but his incredulity doesn’t change what happened that day.” Here’s her full thread:

To presume I invented this story & convinced myself of it is no less insulting than calling me a liar. I’ve consistently stated the truth for 25 years, I won’t stop now. It’s Stephens’ right to doubt me if he so chooses but his incredulity doesn’t change what happened that day./2

— Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) February 10, 2018

What it does do is make it harder for the next victim to come forward. /3

— Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) February 10, 2018

Source: IndieWire film