Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of film director Woody Allen, sent an email to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling the #MeToo justice movement “too far” — and calling a minor girl at the center of a sexting case “disgusting and despicable,” who went to prison, according to a former U.S. congressman. Recently public files.
At one point, Previn also wrote about how her half-brother, Ronan Farrow, received “reputation … more than he deserves,” in an article published in The New York Times months after her journalism, disgraced movie mogul and now-convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein won a share of the Pulitzer Prize and launched the #Meoo movement.
The documents emerged amid Friday’s installment of the so-called Epstein files, which build on earlier partial disclosures and were released by the US Department of Justice in connection with the Congressional Transparency Act. They also appeared in the public eye as did Previn’s complicated history.
Many, including Farrow, have accused Allen, 90, of marrying Previn, 55, after grooming her as a youth while dating his mother – although the couple say he was an adult when their relationship turned romantic.
Related: The newly released Jeffrey Epstein files: 10 key takeaways so far
Years after the wealthy financier pleaded guilty in a Florida state court in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution, Previn and Allen were among numerous notables who remained friends with the late Epstein. The new files, and those already released, are filled with communications surrounding social gatherings — even detailing how Epstein once gifted them with genetic testing kits.
And, the new files also show, Previn sent emails to Epstein or his executive assistant in the fall of 2018, less than a year before authorities say he died by suicide while in federal custody awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Among the millions of recent Epstein files are several messages addressed to Allen or the filmmaker’s assistant. Yet some of the messages that are arguably the most notable involve Previn, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
For example, she sent Epstein a September 2016 Daily Mail article about how former congressman Anthony Weiner asked a 15-year-old girl to undress for him and engage in a rape fantasy. The article ignited another scandal for Weiner, whose political career had already taken a nosedive after he was caught having sex with young women while still married.
“Wow,” Epstein replied to Previn.
“I know,” Previn replied, before adding, “I also thought what this 15-year-old did was despicable” to Weiner.
“I hate women who take advantage of guys and she is definitely one of them. She knew what she was doing and how vulnerable she was. [Weiner] And she lured him in like a fish,” Previn said of the child at the center of the case. [weak]?”
She ended the screed: “So manipulative of her. She should be ashamed of herself.”
Weiner later pleaded guilty in May 2017 to federal charges of transferring obscene material to a minor and was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison.
For a period beginning in the fall of 2017, the files show, Previn wrote about the #MeTooMovement as well as Farrow to Epstein — and in one instance to himself.
Allen’s agent wrote Previn a final piece in The New Yorker following his half-brother’s explosive reporting of multiple rape allegations against Weinstein. A Deadline article describes how an NBC News executive told staffers that Ferro had previously done reporting about Weinstein for the network that it had decided against publishing — but it was different from the bombshell that The New Yorker used to effectively vault the #MeToo movement into high gear.
Allen’s agent wrote to Previn, “Now he’s done at NBC,” where Farrow worked for three years, starting in 2014. Previn then forwarded the agent’s email to Epstein without comment.
Then, in early 2018, Previn forwarded to Epstein an email she had originally sent to herself with the subject line “As the Me Too movement has come a long way so has Botox.”
About eight months later, after Farrow won that year’s Share of Investigative Reporting Pulitzer, Previn would send himself another email, Friday’s Epstein Files set show. Its subject read: “I thought it was funny in the arts section of today’s New York Times.”
The body of the message, dated 19 September 2018, read, “This gives Ronan Farrow a lot of credit. More than he deserves.”
It is not clear from the files which article Previn was referring to. But at the time, the Times’ arts section published an article about how the previous night’s Emmy Awards avoided mentioning #MeToo, with one exception when co-host Colin Jost joked that the scariest words for a network executive to hear were “Sir, Ronan Farrow is on line one.”
Federal authorities arrested Epstein on sex-trafficking charges in July 2019 during his former friend Donald Trump’s first presidency. About a month later, authorities said, he died in a federal prison in Manhattan.
The circumstances of Previn’s marriage to Ellen have long drawn scrutiny. Actress Mia Farrow and her then-husband Andre Previn adopted Soon-Yi from South Korea when she was six years old. Ronan’s mother Mia Farrow divorced Andre Previn and then started seeing Ellen when Soon-Yi was 11. The couple say Ellen and Soon-Yi Previn’s romantic relationship began when she was 21 – while he was still dating her mother.
A 2021 HBO documentary explored allegations that Allen sexually abused his daughter Dylan in 1992. Both he and Previn responded to the documentary Allen v. Farrow saying “these allegations are patently false” and also indicated how they had not been criminally charged.
Interest in the federal government’s handling of the case against Epstein increased after Trump promised to release a full list of the late man’s clients during his successful campaign for a second term in 2024. However, after taking office in early 2025, Trump’s Justice Department announced that there was no such list, causing a bipartisan uproar.
The president later tried to ease the political pressure he had invited by signing a congressional bill directing his Justice Department to release more of the Epstein files than had previously been released. Friday’s installment of the Epstein files, along with a few others from November, stemmed from that bill.
