Woody Allen has spoken about his interactions with Jeffrey Epstein after being invited to various dinners at the home of the paedophile financier.
Allen, 89, called Epstein ‘charming and personable’ as he spoke about meeting the Duke of York and saw David Blaine swallowing live goldfish at his home.
He revealed that he and his wife of 27 years, Soon-Yi, were invited by a publicist to Epstein’s house with ‘one of the British royals’ and a number of other celebrities from show business.
‘We didn’t know Jeffrey at all then, but we see all these people there and they all embraced him, so we figured, “OK, he’s a substantial character,” ‘ he told The Times.
The dinner took place in December 2010, when Epstein had just finished a prison term for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.
‘He told us he’d been in jail and that he had been… falsely put in jail in some way.
‘He told us he was trying to make up for it now by being philanthropic and giving money to cutting-edge scientists and universities. He couldn’t have been nicer.’
In the interview, Allen said his wife – who is the adopted daughter of his ex-wife Mia Farrow and her previous husband Andre Previn – was keen to meet Prince Andrew, which is why they attended.
Soon-Yi, 54, told the paper of the Prince: ‘I couldn’t stand him. He was such a dullard!’
The couple became frequent guests at the house, saying that they were often joined by ‘illustrious people, college professors, scientists, Nobel laureates’ and on some occasions comedians or magicians, including David Blaine swallowing a fish then regurgitating it.
Allen added he never saw him with children.
‘We never, ever, saw Jeffrey with underage girls. He always had a girlfriend but never an underage girlfriend.’
He also added that the girlfriend they saw him with at the dinner parties was not Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell was Epstein’s partner, who is serving a 20-year term for sex trafficking.
Epstein was arrested again on sex trafficking charges in July 2019 and found dead in his cell in a New York prison in August 2019.
The Duke of York stepped down from public life after the backlash over his friendship with Epstein.
He paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, an accuser of Epstein who publicly detailed her account of being sex trafficked by the financier.
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