Woody Allen made a rare public appearance in Madrid this week with his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, shortly before returning to work as a director.
The 90-year-old Oscar-winning filmmaker was photographed holding hands with Previn, 55, during a low-key outing in the Spanish capital. It was the first time the couple had been seen together in public for about a year.
Dressed in a blue shirt and chinos, Allen appeared to lean on his wife as they walked. Previn wore a floral dress paired with a sunhat.
Previn is the adopted daughter of Allen’s former partner, Mia Farrow.
Farrow and Allen began their relationship in 1979. Their partnership ended dramatically 13 years later after Allen, then 55, and Previn, then 21, were discovered to be having an affair.
Allen and Previn married in 1997 and have since adopted two daughters, Bechet, now 28, and Manzie, 26.
Woody Allen made a rare public appearance with wife Soon-Yi Previn in Madrid this week, ahead of his planned return to directing
Allen’s most recent film, Coup de Chance, was released in 2023. On Thursday, he presented details of his next project in Madrid, a film provisionally titled WASP 2026.
Coup de Chance received positive reviews from critics and generated $7.8 million at the global box office in 2023.
During a 2023 appearance promoting the film at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, Allen’s presence was met with boos from people protesting allegations that he sexually assaulted his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow. Allen has vehemently denied the accusation and has never been charged or prosecuted.
His four-film, $68 million deal with Amazon Studios was canceled during the 2020 #MeToo movement. Since then, Allen has faced increasing difficulty securing distributors for his films.
WASP 2026 is a romantic comedy written and directed by Allen. Production is scheduled to begin on October 5, with filming set to take place primarily in Madrid and the nearby city of Aranjuez. Jemima Kirke, Alexi Wasser and Peter Vives are among the cast members.
“I will be very happy to return to Spain,” Allen said. “This will be my third time filming there and my first opportunity to make a film in Madrid, a city I have always loved.”
The project will receive €3 million in public funding from the Madrid Regional Government and Madrid City Council.
Our News Outlet has contacted a representative for Allen for further comment.
Farrow and her then-husband, conductor André Previn, adopted Soon-Yi from Korea when she was six years old.
Allen first met Previn when she was approximately 11, during his relationship with Farrow.
The 90-year-old filmmaker held hands with his 55-year-old wife of 29 years during a quiet Madrid outing, their first public appearance together in roughly a year
Allen wore a blue shirt and chinos while leaning on Previn, who was dressed in a floral outfit and sunhat
Allen held his wife’s arms as the pair made their way inside
Allen, who last directed a movie titled Coup de Chance in 2023, presented his next film in Madrid on Thursday, which is provisionally titled ‘Wasp 23’
By the time Previn was 21, an intimate relationship had started between the two.
The affair with Previn began in December 1991, the same month that Allen adopted Dylan and Moses Farrow, Mia Farrow’s children, according to The New York Times.
It is alleged that Korean-born Previn bonded with Allen during her final year of high school when she told him that she wanted to be a model.
After spending more time together, the pair’s relationship grew stronger, according to Vanity Fair.
So strong, that in January 1992, Farrow found nude polaroid photographs of her adopted daughter in Allen’s home, when they were still together. The affair continued into August.
During the same month, Dylan, who was seven at the time, claimed that Allen sexually abused her on CBS This Morning.
Previn has insisted that Allen is innocent.
The relationship continued, and by 1997, Allen and Previn wed in Venice.
Dylan’s sexual abuse allegations were investigated, and no charges ever brought.
Allen married his ex-partner Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi in 1997 – the couple are pictured in 1999
Ronan Farrow, the journalist brother of Dylan, wrote about it in 2016, and condemned Hollywood for continuing to work with their father.
Their brother Moses Farrow, however, has consistently defended their father and accused Farrow of coaching Dylan to accuse Woody, in anger at their divorce.
Allen has remained relatively tight-lipped when it comes to his relationship with Previn, but in March 2021 on CBS Sunday Morning, he commented on the marriage in conversation with Lee Cowan.
He was asked if he ever considered a relationship with his girlfriend’s adopted daughter to be inappropriate.
The couple have a 35 year age gap, and they were introduced when Soon-Yin was approximately 11 years old
Allen said ‘no,’ adding ‘there was never a moment that it wasn’t the most natural thing in the world… it didn’t give me pause, because the relationship with Soon-Yi was very gradual. It wasn’t like I went out with her one night and kissed her.
‘I would say of the many women I’ve dated in my life, many women, they were all what the appropriate police would call appropriate – age appropriate,’ he said. ‘Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Louise Lasser, my first wife; until Soon-Yi, which is unusual for me.’
Allen added: ‘If you’d have told me I was going to wind up married, and happily married, to an Asian woman much younger than me, not in show business, I would have said ‘the odds of that are very slim. I don’t think you’re going to be right.’ But that’s what happened.’
