Woody Allen gave a rare glimpse into his long-married life with Soon-Yi Previn in a Wall Street Journal interview published this week to promote his new fictional book, What’s With Baum?. The 89-year-old filmmaker described Previn, 54, as disciplined, decisive, a wonderful mother and a larger-than-life personality, and he said he admires her toughness. The couple has been married since 1997.
Allen said that if anyone had told him years ago that he would marry a younger woman with no background in New York and that she’d be a Korean orphan, he would have said, No chance. But it didn’t work out that way. He began dating Previn while he was still dating Mia Farrow, with whom he adopted Moses Farrow and Isaiah Farrow and daughters Dylan Farrow and Tam Farrow. The former couple also had a biological son, Ronan Farrow. Mia Farrow adopted Previn with her ex-husband André Previn before she dated Allen.
Allen met Previn when he was dating Mia Farrow, her adoptive mother. He discussed the early days of their romance in his 2020 memoir, Apropos of Nothing. At the very early stages of our new relationship, when lust reigns supreme … we couldn’t keep our hands off each other, he wrote at the time. The Midnight in Paris director also described in the book Mia’s rage when she found erotic pics of her then-20-year-old daughter in his apartment, adding, Of course I understand her shock, her dismay, her rage, everything. It was the correct reaction. She and Allen split in 1992.
Allen told the Wall Street Journal of his marriage, 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. But it didn’t work out that way.
The couple resides together in New York. In his autobiography — and to this day — the Manh ttan star said he does not regret dating Soon-Yi. Allen told the Wall Street Journal that while there are many regrets he has, they are strictly professional. I could probably pluck out 15 of the 50 that you could keep and you could get rid of all the rest.
He spends a lot of his time going to the theater at Lincoln Center, which he considers a treat. He also noted Soon-Yi recently surprised him by taking him to see Andres Veiel’s Riefenstahl. The couple also enjoys reading, and the director said of his wife’s thoughts on his new book about a middle-aged Jewish journalist turned novelist who is consumed with anxiety, She was OK with the book. She didn’t knock it. She finds my writing style high-falutin.
The interview with the WSJ comes as Allen promotes What’s With Baum?, his latest fictional work that he described as exploring a middle-aged artist’s insecurities and anxieties. He offered a portrait of a life shaped by a controversial relationship, framed within a broader, reflective view of aging, career, and creative ambition. The conversation underscores a rare public window into a marriage that has long been the subject of intense public interest, given the couple’s history and the years they have spent living and working in New York.
Despite the notoriety of their past, Allen has largely kept personal details of his marriage out of the spotlight in recent years, while continuing to create and perform. The WSJ interview and the surrounding coverage have highlighted the complexity of memory, public perception, and the way a long partnership persists in the context of both professional achievements and personal controversy. In that light, the discussion about Soon-Yi’s influence, temperament, and support offers a portrait of a partnership that has endured through decades of scrutiny while still occupying a central place in the filmmaker’s life and work.
As Allen looks to the future of his career and his writing, close observers note that his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn remains a defining pillar of his personal life. The couple’s two adopted children and their shared home in New York continue to anchor a life that has persisted well beyond early career milestones, with new work and ongoing cultural activity at Lincoln Center and beyond. Whether this interview signals a broader shift in how he discusses his private life publicly remains to be seen, but it offers a rare, unvarnished glimpse into a marriage that has, by all accounts, thrived amid controversy and public interest.
