Filmmaker Woody Allen and wife Soon-Yi Previn had a controversial start to their relationship. But 27 years into their marriage, Allen revealed he was just as shocked as anyone.
“If anyone had told me years ago that I would be married to a girl much younger than me with no background in New York or none of the similar interests growing up and that she’d be a Korean orphan, I would have said, ‘No chance,'” Allen told Wall Street Journal in an article published Wednesday, September 17. “‘I’m going to be married to a New York actress.’ But it didn’t work out that way,'” he added.
The Midnight in Paris director described Previn as “disciplined,” “decisive,” “a wonderful mother” and “a larger-than-life personality.”
“But she’s great to be around and it’s a treat for me, so we spend a lot of time together,” he told The Times.
Allen met his now-wife while in a relationship with Previn’s adoptive mother, actress Mia Farrow. Farrow was also mother to children Dylan and Moses, whom Allen later adopted in 1991. The former couple also share biological child, Ronan Farrow, who was born in December 1987.
Allen and Farrow split in 1992 after 12 years together when his relationship with Previn was discovered. Allen was 56 years old at the time. Previn was 21.
“But age was never an issue with me. I mean, my first wife [Harlene Rosen] was about three years younger than me. My second wife [Louise Lasser] was a couple years younger. [Diane] Keaton was the same,” he said in an interview with The Times earlier this week. “It was nothing I thought about.”
