Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of filmmaker Woody Allen, sent emails to Jeffrey Epstein, telling the convicted sex offender that the #MeToo justice movement had “gone too far” — and smearing an underage girl at the center of a sexting case as “despicable and disgusting” rather than the former US congressman, who subsequently sent the government illegal release files.
At one point, Previn also wrote about how her half-brother, Ronan Farrow, received more “prestige … than he deserves” in a New York Times op-ed published months after his journalism on Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul and now-convicted sex offender, won a share of a Pulitzer Prize and launched the #MeToo movement.
The documents emerged amid Friday’s installment of the so-called Epstein files, which built on earlier partial disclosures and were released by the US Justice Department in connection with a congressional transparency law. They have also emerged as Previn’s complicated history emerges into the public eye.
Many, including Farrow, accused Allen, 90, of marrying Previn, 55, after babysitting her as a young woman while dating her mother – although the couple said he was an adult when their relationship turned romantic.
Related: The newly released Jeffrey Epstein files: 10 key takeaways so far
Previn and Allen were among countless notables who maintained a friendship with the late Epstein even years after the wealthy financier pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida state court to procuring a minor for prostitution. The new files, and those previously released, are full of communications around social gatherings — even detailing how Epstein once provided them with genetic testing kits.
And the new files also show Previn sent emails to Epstein or an executive assistant of his as far back as the fall of 2018, less than a year before officials say he killed himself while in federal custody awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Among the millions of recent Epstein files are numerous messages to or from Allen or the director’s assistant. However, some messages that are perhaps most striking are those involving Previn, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
She, for example, forwarded a September 2016 Daily Mail article to Epstein about how former congressman Anthony Weiner texted a 15-year-old boy, asking her to undress for him and engage in rape fantasies. The article sparked another scandal for Weiner, whose political career had already collapsed after he was previously caught having sex with young women while still married.
“Wow,” Epstein replied to Previn.
“I know,” Previn replied, before adding, “I also thought it was disgusting what the 15-year-old did to Weiner.
“I hate women who take advantage of guys and she is definitely one of them. She knew exactly what she was doing and how vulnerable [Weiner] she was also spinning like fish for bait,” Previn said of the child at the center of the case. “What is her excuse for being a despicable, disgusting person who preys [weak]?”
She ended the screed with: “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 would receive a sentence of 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 case about herself.
An agent for Allen forwarded Previn a Deadline article following her half-brother’s explosive reporting of multiple rape allegations against Weinstein in the New Yorker. The Deadline article recounted how an NBC News executive told staffers that Farrow had previously reported on Weinstein to the network that it had decided not to publish — but that it was different from the bombshell dropped by the New Yorker to effectively set the #MeToo movement in motion.
Allen’s agent wrote to Previn, “Now he’s probably done at NBC,” where Farrow had worked for three years starting in 2014. Previn then forwarded the email to Epstein’s agent without comment.
Then, in early 2018, Previn forwarded to Epstein an email he had originally sent himself with the subject line, “As the Me Too movement has gone too far, so has Botox.”
About eight months later, after Farrow won a share of that year’s investigative reporting Pulitzer, Previn sent himself another email, the Epstein file set Friday shows. Its subject line was: “I found it funny in today’s New York Times arts section.”
The body of the September 19, 2018 message read, in part, “Gives too much credit to Ronan Farrow. More than he deserves.”
It is not clear from the files which article Previn was referring to. But back then, the Times arts section ran a story about how last night’s Emmys largely avoided mentioning #MeToo, with one exception being when co-host Colin Jost joked that the scariest words a network executive could hear were “Sir, Ronan Farrow is on the front line.”
Federal authorities arrested Epstein on sex-trafficking charges in July 2019, during the first presidency of his former friend Donald Trump. About a month later, officials say, he died in a federal prison in Manhattan.
The circumstances of Previn’s marriage to Allen have long attracted much attention. Actor Mia Farrow and her then-husband Andre Previn adopted Soon-Yi from South Korea when she was six. Mia Farrow, Ronan’s mother, divorced Andre Previn and then started seeing Allen when Soon-Yi was 11. The couple said Allen 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 assaulted his daughter Dylan in 1992. Both he and Previn responded to the Allen v Farrow documentary with a statement saying “these allegations are categorically false”, as well as alluding to how they never led to criminal charges.
Interest in the federal government’s handling of the case against Epstein — who served 13 months in prison after his guilty plea in 2008 — grew after Trump promised to release a full list of the late man’s clients while successfully campaigning for a second presidency in 2024. However, after taking office in early 2025, Trump’s Justice Department has not released any list bipartite.
The president later tried to alleviate some of the political pressure it invited on him by signing a congressional bill ordering his Justice Department to release more of the Epstein files than had previously been released. Friday’s installment of the Epstein filings, along with several others from November, stemmed from that bill.
• This article was amended on 4 February 2026. An earlier version incorrectly stated Soon-Yi Previn and Ronan Farrow are half-siblings.