To counter ‘vicious rumors,’ Mia Farrow details deaths of three of her 14 children
Actor Mia Farrow, recently in the spotlight for the HBO limited series “Allen v. Farrow,” posted a statement Wednesday evening on social media regarding the deaths of three of her 14 children since 2000.
Farrow, 76, said she was addressing “vicious rumors” that have circulated online amid the buzz about the documentary, which doesn’t address the deaths. Rather, it focuses on allegations that Farrow’s then-partner Woody Allen molested daughter Dylan Farrow.
Even before ‘Allen v. Farrow’ premiered, Allen supporters came out against it. Their reaction says less about HBO’s series than a changing culture.
“Few families are perfect, and any parent who has suffered the loss of child knows that pain is merciless and ceaseless,” the “Hannah and Her Sisters” actor wrote. “However, some vicious rumors based on untruths have appeared online concerning the lives of three of my children. To honor their memory, their children and every family that has dealt with the death of a child, I am posting this message.”
The Golden Globe winner, who was previously married to Frank Sinatra and André Previn and has four biological children and 10 adopted children, lost daughter Tam Farrow in 2000, daughter Lark Previn in 2008 and son Thaddeus Farrow in 2016.
Farrow offered the following details: Tam died of an “accidental prescription overdose” related to her migraines and a heart condition. Lark died “suddenly of complications of HIV/AIDS, which she had contracted from a previous partner,” succumbing to her illness at a hospital. Thaddeus “took his own life” after a relationship that had seemed wedding-bound instead ended.
“These are unspeakable tragedies,” she wrote. “Any other speculation about their deaths is to dishonor their lives and the lives of their children and loved ones.”
Estranged son Moses Farrow, who has supported Woody Allen in the ongoing battle between his mother and the director, told a slightly different story in a 2018 blog post where he contradicted his mother’s claim that Tam’s OD was accidental — he says Mia said that Tam, who was blind, “didn’t know which pills she was taking” — and noted that Lark was “in poverty” when she died.
For years, observers have wondered what would seal the disgraced filmmaker’s fate. Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s four-part docuseries could be it.
Allen, who in the 1990s co-adopted Moses Farrow and Dylan Farrow, had no parental ties to the three Farrow children who died.
“I am grateful to be the mother of fourteen children who have blessed me with sixteen grandchildren. Although we have known sorrow, our lives today are full of love and joy,” Mia Farrow wrote Wednesday. “Everyone has their own battle to fight; their own sorrows that gnaw.”
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