Soon-Yi Previn (/ˈprɛvɪn/; born Oh Soon-hee, Korean: 오순희; c. October 8, 1970) is the adopted daughter of actress Mia Farrow and musician André Previn. She is married to filmmaker Woody Allen, and the couple have two adopted children.[1]
According to Soon-Yi Previn and Allen, they began their relationship after he ended his 10-year affiliation with Farrow in 1991, when Previn was 21. In 1992, their relationship became news.
Early life and education
Soon-Yi Previn (original name Oh Soon-hee) was born in South Korea. She was allegedly found abandoned in Seoul on February 12, 1976, and placed temporarily 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, with an official birth date of October 8, 1970.[2][3][4] A bone scan at the time of her adoption put her age at between five and seven.[3] Previn has said that as a young child, she lived on the streets and got food out of trash cans.[4]
In 1978, Mia Farrow and her then husband, André Previn, adopted Soon-Yi and took her to the United States.[5] 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.[6] Farrow asked her friends Rose and William Styron to have U.S. Representative Michael Harrington sponsor a private bill to enable the girl's adoption to the United States. This bill, HR 1552, was passed as Private Law 95-37 on May 15, 1978, paving Soon-Yi's way to immigrate to the United States.[7][8]
Just after the adoption, Farrow wrote to Nancy Sinatra about Soon-Yi, "Now she speaks English and is learning to read, write, play piano, dance ballet & ride a horse".[9] Farrow later said that at the time of her adoption, Soon-Yi had learning disabilities.[10][5]Rose Styron is Soon-Yi's godmother.[10]
Farrow's marriage to André Previn ended in 1979. In 1980, Farrow began a long-term relationship with filmmaker Woody Allen.[11] Allen later adopted two of Farrow's adopted children: Dylan Farrow and Moses Farrow. In 1987, Mia Farrow gave birth to Ronan Farrow.
In 1992, Previn said that Farrow had physically abused her.[17] In 2018, Previn's brother Moses Farrow has said that he too was physically abused by Farrow.[18]
Relationship with Woody Allen
Previn has said that Allen "was never any kind of father figure [to her]" and that she "never had any dealings with him" during her childhood.[17] The findings of the 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.[19] 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.[4]
Previn graduated from high school and began college in 1991.[4] According to the birthdate the Seoul Family Court assigned her, she turned 21 in October 1991.[4][20][21] The judicial investigation during the custody trial between Farrow and Allen concluded that Allen's and Previn's sexual relationship began in December 1991.[19] Mia Farrow's friends have said it might have started in the spring or summer of 1991, before Soon-Yi turned 21.[3][21]
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, approximately two weeks after he and Previn first had sex.[22] Farrow contends that she broke off her relationship with Allen in 1992 following her discovery of the affair.[23][10] Previn and Allen dispute that, claiming that Allen and Farrow were no longer involved when Farrow discovered the photos.[17]
Allen described his relationship with Previn as a "fling" that developed into a more significant relationship.[24] But in a 2018 interview Previn said, "From the first kiss I was a goner and loved him."[12] On August 17, 1992, Allen issued a statement that he was in love with Previn.[25] 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."[12]
When Previn's relationship with Allen became public, it 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.[26]
Previn and Allen married in Venice on December 22, 1997; she was 27 and he was 62.[15] They have adopted two daughters together.[24][27] According to her longtime friends, Previn has devoted herself to being a wife and stay-at-home mother.[4] The Previn-Allen family resides on Manhattan's Upper East Side.[28]
As of 2021, Previn remains estranged from Mia Farrow.[29]
^ abcOrth, Maureen (November 1992). "Mia's Story". Vanity Fair. Nobody knows how old Soon-Yi really is. Without ever seeing her, Korean officials put her age down as seven on her passport. A bone scan Mia had done on her in the U.S. put her age as from five to seven. In the family, Soon-Yi is considered to have turned 20 this year, on October 8 [1992].
^ abcdefMerkin, Daphne (September 16, 2018). "Introducing Soon-Yi Previn [interview]". Vulture.com. She first comes into view in about 1975 as a 5-year-old runaway on the streets of Seoul. (There are no extant records of Soon-Yi's early life, but a document signed by both Mia and André Previn, her adoptive father, ... has her date of birth as October 8, 1970.)
