Soon-Yi Previn (/ˈprɛvɪn/; previously Oh Soon Hee, Korean: 오순희; c. October 8, 1970) is the wife of filmmaker Woody Allen and the adopted daughter of actress Mia Farrow and musician André Previn. Soon-Yi Previn's romantic relationship with Allen created public controversy when it became known in 1992; Allen had been the long-term partner of Previn's adoptive mother, Mia Farrow. Previn married Allen in 1997.
As a child, Soon-Yi Previn (previously named Oh Soon Hee) was reportedly found abandoned in Seoul, South Korea, on February 12, 1976.[1] At that time, she was unable to speak intelligibly.[2] She was temporarily placed in Maria's House, a local institution. When authorities failed to locate her parents or relatives, they placed her in St. Paul's Orphanage. The Seoul Family Court established a Family Census Register (legal birth document) on her behalf on December 28, 1976, giving her a birth date of October 8, 1970. Her actual birth date is unknown.[1][2][3] Previn has said that as a young child, she lived on the streets and got food out of trash cans.[3]
In 1978, Mia Farrow and her then-husband, André Previn, adopted Previn and took her to the United States.[4] At the time, U.S. law allowed two visas per family for international adoption, and the couple had already adopted Vietnamese infants Lark Song Previn and Summer "Daisy" Song Previn.[5] Farrow asked her friends Rose and William Styron to have U.S. Representative Michael Harrington sponsor a private bill to enable Previn's adoption to the United States. This bill, HR 1552, was passed as Private Law 95-37 on May 15, 1978, paving Previn's way to immigrate to the United States.[6][7]
Just after the adoption, Farrow wrote to Nancy Sinatra about Previn, saying, "Now she speaks English and is learning to read, write, play piano, dance ballet & ride a horse".[8] Farrow later said that at the time of her adoption, Previn had learning disabilities.[2][4] Rose Styron is Previn's godmother.[2]
Farrow's marriage to André Previn ended in 1979. In 1980, Farrow began a long-term relationship with filmmaker Woody Allen.[9] Allen later adopted two of Farrow's adopted children: Dylan Farrow and Moses Farrow. Allen's adoption of Dylan and Moses was finalized on December 17, 1991.[10] Farrow and Allen also became the biological parents of a son, Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow (later known simply as Ronan Farrow),[11] on December 19, 1987.[12]
Previn graduated from Marymount School of New York in 1991. After a summer as a sales associate at Bergdorf Goodman, she began her freshman year as a commuter student at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, in September 1991.[3] Previn graduated from Drew in 1995 and earned a master's degree in special education from Columbia University in 1998.[13][14] She has taught fourth grade at the Spence School, a private school in Manhattan.[13]
In 1992, Previn said that Farrow had physically abused her.[15] In 2018, Previn's brother, Moses Farrow, said that he had been physically abused by Farrow.[16]
During her teens, Previn made an uncredited appearance in Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), which starred Farrow. She appeared as an extra in Paul Mazursky's 1991 film Scenes from a Mall,[2] which starred Allen. She also appeared alongside Allen in the documentary Wild Man Blues (1997).[17]
Previn has said that Woody Allen "was never any kind of father figure [to her]" and that she "never had any dealings with him" during her childhood, when Allen was dating Mia Farrow.[15] A judicial investigation carried out during the custody trial between Farrow and Allen determined that before 1990, Previn and Allen had rarely spoken to each other.[18] According to Previn, her first friendly interaction with Allen took place when she was injured playing soccer during 11th grade and Allen offered to transport her to school. Following her injury, in 1990, Previn began attending New York Knicks basketball games with Allen.[3] A judicial investigation from the Farrow-Allen custody trial concluded that Allen and Previn began a sexual relationship in December 1991.[18] As Allen and Farrow had never married, and as Allen had never adopted Previn, their relationship was not illegal.[19]
In January 1992, Farrow found nude photographs of Previn in Allen's home. Allen, then 56, told Farrow that he had taken the photos the day before, about two weeks after he and Previn first had sex.[20] At the time, Previn was a first-year student at Drew University.[2] Farrow said she broke off her relationship with Allen in 1992 upon discovering his affair with Previn.[21][2] But Previn and Allen initially contended that Allen and Farrow were no longer together when Farrow discovered the photos of Previn.[15] Allen later said that at the time his relationship with Previn began, he was "still in some version of a relationship with" Farrow but that they were just "going through the motions".[22]
Allen has called his relationship with Previn a "fling" that developed into a more significant relationship.[23] In a 2018 interview, Previn said, "From the first kiss I was a goner and loved him".[3]
On August 17, 1992, Allen issued a public statement that he was in love with Previn.[24] Previn was surprised by his declaration: "I only knew that he loved me when he gave the press conference and said it publicly. Even then, I wasn't sure if he meant it. We had never said those words to each other".[3]
Previn's relationship with Allen became a scandal.[25][26][27] Their relationship was a catalyst for "tabloid headlines and late-night monologues in August 1992", in part due to the allegation that he had sexually abused Previn's adoptive sister Dylan Farrow.[28]
Previn and Allen married in Venice on December 22, 1997; she was 27 and he was 62.[14] They have adopted two daughters together.[23][29] According to her longtime friends, Previn has devoted herself to being a wife and stay-at-home mother.[3] The Previn-Allen family resides on Manhattan's Upper East Side.[30][31]
As of 2021, Previn remained estranged from Mia Farrow.[32]
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