Iconic filmmaker Woody Allen has been married
to Soon-Yi Previn for decades, but there are some strange aspects to this coupling. Their union gives new meaning to the term
"blended family," and get this: she doesn't even care for his movies! Here's everything you need to know about this
odd match. Woody Allen supposedly saw no problem dating
Soon-Yi Previn, his ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter from Korea, because she wasn't
a biological child and because he and Mia Farrow had never married. Farrow had adopted Soon-Yi with her boyfriend
before Allen, Andre Previn. “How can they marry? They’re step siblings.” “I’m not her brother and I never was.” “Except for that one year.” “It’s exactly what Woody Allen did.” Allen told Time, "I am not Soon-Yi's father or stepfather. I've never even lived with Mia. I've never in my entire life slept at Mia's
apartment, and I never even used to go over there until my children came along [... ] I
was not a father to her adopted kids in any sense of the word. There's no downside to it. The only thing unusual is that she's Mia's
daughter. But she's an adopted daughter and a grown
woman. I could have met her at a party or something." Previn echoed that rationale, telling Time: "To think that Woody was in any way a father
or stepfather to me is laughable. My parents are Andre Previn and Mia, but obviously
they're not even my real parents. I came to America when I was 7. I was never remotely close to Woody." Priscilla Gilman, who dated Matthew Previn,
son of Mia Farrow and Andre Previn, told Vanity Fair that Farrow's other children noticed
something was up with a teenage Soon-Yi and Woody Allen. Gilman recalled: "All of a sudden she started wearing these
incredibly sexy clothes, and putting on these black, really slinky shirts and little skirts
and these pumps and stuff. She would say, 'Don't tell Mom. I'm going to a friend's house.' And I said to Matthew, 'I think she has a
secret boyfriend, and I think we should find out who this is.' And Matthew said, 'Oh, no, just let her do
her own thing.'" One of Soon-Yi's longtime tutors, Audrey Seiger,
also had suspicions about Woody's influence on Soon-Yi. Seiger told Vanity Fair: "Those last six months of high school, there
was a definite change. I have no idea when her relationship started
with him. He was helping her to show her how to dress
and prepare herself to be a model, and he arranged for her to have professional pictures
taken. When I saw the professional pictures, I was
very surprised, because Soon-Yi looked so glamorous." Vanity Fair reported that Farrow discovered
Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi when she found a stack of racy photos of her daughter
at Allen's home. Allen took the photos of Soon-Yi, claiming
they were a tool to kick-start her modeling career. Allen told Time: "Soon-Yi had talked about being a model and
said to me would I take some pictures of her without her clothes on. At this time we had an intimate relationship,
so I said sure, and I did. [...] I said, 'Look, our relationship has
been over for some time. We should go our separate ways. The important thing is that we do what is
right for our children.’” Farrow was then awarded custody in 1993 by
the New York State Supreme Court. According to The New York Times, Acting Justice
Elliott Wilk described Allen as a self-absorbed, untrustworthy and insensitive father. The Times said Wilk issued a scathing 33-page
decision that: "[...] denounced Mr. Allen for carrying on
an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, trying to pit family members against one another and lacking
knowledge of the most basic aspects of his children's lives." “Nobody likes me now. I’m in a house full of enemies.” In terms of his children's thoughts on his
relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, Woody Allen seems equally baffled by any resistance. When asked about his kids' feelings, the filmmaker
told Time: "I don't think they think of 'sleeping with.' They only know what is constantly drummed
into them. And I don't think my children feel any lack
of affection or any rivalry. Soon-Yi and I will be very, very cognizant
of their situation and feelings." When a judge asked Allen about the consequences
of sleeping with someone his children may view as a sister, the filmmaker replied: "I didn't see it that way. I'm sorry." In 1992, Woody Allen told Time that Mia Farrow
was the one who prompted him to forge a relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, though likely not the
kind of relationship that ultimately transpired. "Mia had encouraged me to get to know her. She would say, 'Take a walk with Soon-Yi,
do something with her. Try and make friends with her, she's not really
as hostile to you as you might think.' Mia thought it was fine I took her to the
game […] And we struck up a relationship. It was strictly — I don't want to say an
intellectual relationship, because I'm not saying we were discussing Kant or anything,
but we chatted about different things." The New York Post reported that after Mia
Farrow found out about Woody Allen's relationship with her daughter, she sent Soon-Yi to work
at a children's summer camp in Maine in June 1992. The job didn't last, but Farrow didn't know
that. According to the Post, Farrow later found
out that Previn had been fired from the camp because Allen was bombarding her with calls. Farrow supposedly didn't even know where her
daughter was until she saw paparazzi photos of Previn outside Allen's apartment. Allen told Time that the reason he kept his
relationship with Soon-Yi a secret from Mia, at least initially, was because he didn't
necessarily think it would last. He stated: "For all I knew I might have just been a little
footnote in Soon-Yi's life, and then she would later say, 'Well, I had a little flirtation
with my mother's boyfriend at the end of their relationship.'" He told NPR, "I started the relationship with her and I
thought it would just be a fling. 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." Just how big is that age difference? Previn was 27 years old and Allen was 62 when
they wed in 1997. The filmmaker told NPR: "I'm 35 years older, and somehow, through
no fault of mine or hers, the dynamic worked. I was paternal. She responded to someone paternal." When news of their relationship broke, Soon-Yi
Previn issued a statement to Newsweek defending her romance with Woody Allen and alleging
that Mia Farrow abused her. Previn stated: "I think Mia would have been just as angry
if [Allen] had taken up with another actress or his secretary. [...] I'm a psychology major at college who
fell for a man who happens to be the ex-boyfriend of Mia. I admit it's offbeat, but let's not get hysterical. The tragedy here is that, because of Mia's
vindictiveness, the children must suffer. I will always have a feeling of love for her
because of the opportunities she gave me, but it's hard to forgive much that followed." Soon-Yi Previn's statement was powerful, but
some insiders believe those eloquent words actually belonged to Allen. One source told Vanity Fair: "Soon-Yi doesn't know half those words, what
they mean." Woody Allen seemed baffled at the backlash
he faced over his romance with Soon-Yi Previn, and he was especially taken aback at the notion
that Mia Farrow may not adapt well to the relationship. After Farrow found out about Allen's relationship
with Previn, sources told Vanity Fair that he broke down sobbing and asked Farrow to
marry him, allegedly saying the affair with her daughter was probably good for Soon-Yi's
self esteem. Playwright pal Leonard Gershe, who was Farrow's
next-door neighbor in New York, told the magazine: "[Allen's] whole attitude about it was as
though it were a breach of etiquette. [...] [Farrow] couldn't believe what was coming
out of him. And then she slapped him." Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2016,
Woody Allen talked about his wife's past: "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. And she was picked up and put in an orphanage." He seemingly left out the part about Mia Farrow
adopting Soon-Yi Previn, opting to give himself a lot of credit instead: "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… got a college degree
and went to graduate school, and she has traveled all over with me now. She's very sophisticated… she has just become
a different person. So the contributions I've made to her life
have given me more pleasure than all my films." In 2011, Woody Allen told The Guardian that
his wife isn't a fan of his work. Allen stated: "She's never taken me seriously really. She thinks that I'm very good at what I do
and absolutely terrible at everything else. And she's probably not far off." Allen added: "People thought when I first married her that,
because of this big age difference, I'd married someone who'd idolize me. But that wasn't the case at all. [...] She's just not that interested in them." Woody Allen acknowledged the inequality in
his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn in a 2005 interview with Vanity Fair, but he said
he believed that imbalance was a positive thing. The filmmaker claimed: "All the women that I went out with were basically
my age. Two years younger. Ten years was the maximum. Now, here, it just works like magic." Allen may not have been entirely truthful
about his relationship past. According to the New York Post, Allen dated
high school student Stacey Nelkin when he was in his forties. It was Nelkin who reportedly inspired his
iconic 1979 film Manhattan. “I was one of those girls who was always
looking for a daddy, and I would imagine Soon-Yi had the same kind of issues.” “So that’s what attracted you to Woody?” “Oh, very much so.” It's a 'good-luck thing' Unconventional and controversial as it may
be, Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn's marriage has outlasted the unions of many of their
entertainment industry peers. A then-79-year-old Allen described it like
this in a 2015 NPR interview: "I'm a big believer in luck. I feel that you can't orchestrate those things. Two people come along, and they have a trillion
exquisite needs and neuroses and nuances, and they have to mesh. And if one of them doesn't mesh, it causes
a lot of trouble. It's like the trace vitamin not being in your
body. It's a tiny little thing, but if you don't
have it, you die." Previn has also described their love story
in grand fashion, via an email to Vulture. "I think Woody liked the fact that I had chutzpah
when he first kissed me and I said, 'I wondered how long it was going to take you to make
a move. From the first kiss I was a goner and loved
him." After Soon-Yi spoke with Vulture about her
marriage to Woody Allen and her estrangement from adoptive mother Mia Farrow, the author
of the 2018 profile spoke out and claimed that Allen would have preferred the story
not to run at all. Writer Daphne Merkin told the New York Post: "There was no influence [from Allen on the
story], other than he told me more than once to pull the piece. He just thought: 'Don't.'" Merkin happens to be a friend of Allen's,
but Vulture’s parent publication, New York Magazine, released in a statement: "This was always meant to be told as Soon-Yi's
account. We knew from the time that we got the first
draft that other people involved would dramatically disagree; we worked carefully to represent
their perspective in the story." In the end, Merkin was heavily criticized
for the piece, which was perceived by some as biased. She told the New York Post: "I felt I was opening the door on their townhouse
and showing us an odd but affecting couple. [...] It's strange how critics don't think
Soon Yi deserves to be heard, that the abuse she suffered because it was at the hands of
a woman and not a man, is somehow less valid. My intention was to let a silenced woman's
voice be heard." Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about celebrities
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