Inside The Tragic Deaths Of Mia Farrow's Three Children
The death of any child is unimaginable to a parent, but Mia Farrow has had more than her share of tragedy. Three of her 14 children died heartbreakingly young: Tam Farrow in 2000, Lark Previn in 2008, and Thaddeus Farrow in 2016.
Farrow has been increasingly in the news recently due to the shocking revelations in HBO's documentary Allen v. Farrow about the allegations of sexual abuse by Woody Allen of their adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. NBC News notes that because of that, the increased attention on the entire family has drawn notice to a 2018 essay written by one of her sons, Moses Farrow, defending Allen. In the post, the deaths of the three children are mentioned in detail, none of whom appear in the documentary series. In fact, The Wrap suggests that the reason HBO omitted them was because there is a family dispute around the circumstances of their deaths. Most notably, Moses' detailed descriptions of the events appear to contradict some statements Farrow has made publicly.
Moses' relationship with Farrow has been a source of conflict over the years. Now a therapist who specializes in adoption-trauma therapy, Moses has stated there was abuse in the home, preferential treatment of the Caucasian children, and that the conflict over Allen's relationship with Soon-Yi, as well as the abuse allegations, led to a significant breakdown in the family's home life (via The Guardian). "It was not a happy home — or a healthy one," he states in his blog post.
Not everyone remembers Tam's death the same way
According to Moses in his blog post, Tam struggled with depression and allegedly Farrow refused to get her help. Then, in 2000, after a terrible fight with her mother, Tam overdosed. "My mother would tell others that the drug overdose was accidental, saying that Tam, who was blind, didn't know which pills she was taking. But Tam had both an ironclad memory and sense of spatial recognition. And, of course, blindness didn't impair her ability to count."
Moses also noted that Thaddeus was a first-hand witness to the argument and overdose, and it was he who relayed to Moses the accounts of the evening. But because of Thaddeus' own death in 2016, Moses continues, "tragically, he is no longer able to confirm this account."
Farrow's account of Tam's death contradicts Moses' assertions. At the time, Farrow released a statement through her spokesperson Judy Hofflund, "Mia's daughter died from heart failure over the weekend. She had a weak heart. She died of cardiac arrest," via Daily Mail. And in a recent statement on Twitter where she claims to refute "vicious rumors," she writes, "My beloved daughter Tam passed away at 17 from an accidental prescription overdose related to the agonizing migraines she suffered, and her heart ailment."
Page Six contends Tam was photoshopped out of a photo Farrow recently posted on her Twitter feed. While there does seem to be an obvious change to the picture, the motivations are not as clear.
Moses alleges Lark's death was similarly whitewashed
The first of Farrow's adopted children, Lark Song Previn, died on Christmas Day in 2008. While Lark's cause of death was never officially announced, notes People, Farrow's Twitter statement confirms, "She died at 35 from complications HIV/AIDS, which she contracted from a previous partner. Despite her illness she lived a fruitful and loving life with her children and long time partner."
But again, Moses' blog post contradicts the happy story that Farrow portrays. "She wound up on a path of self-destruction, struggled with addiction, and eventually died in poverty from AIDS-related causes in 2008 at age 35." There are others that seem to concur with Moses' description of Lark's life. The New York Daily News quotes Rev. Timothy Tighe as saying during her funeral that, "She had dark moments in her life, but she put one foot in front of the other and kept going."
While Lark mostly kept out of the public eye and was reclusive, according to neighbors who spoke to The New York Daily News after her death, she gained national attention when she was arrested at age 18 in 1991 with sister Daisy for stealing lingerie from a shop in Danbury, Connecticut.
And then the third tragedy struck
Thaddeus, who was paralyzed from the waist down after contracting polio as a child at an orphanage in his native India (via People), allegedly committed suicide after the breakdown of a romantic partnership. As Farrow writes on Twitter, "My courageous son Thaddeus was 29 and happily living with his partner; we were all anticipating a wedding, but when the relationship abruptly ended, he took his own life." According to EW, police reports state that Thaddeus was found in his car "suffering from a life-threatening injury" about 24 miles from where he lived. He pronounced dead at the hospital.
Unlike the other two children's deaths, Moses' account generally synchs with Farrow's, stating in his post that, "Thaddeus also committed suicide by shooting himself in his car, less than 10 minutes from my mother's house," seemingly connecting Thaddeus' suicide to what he alleges occurred with Tam.
Adopted in 1994, Thaddeus came into the household many years after Allen and Farrow had separated, according to his obituary.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The question is what really is the truth?
Aside from the larger family conflict, in the discrepancies between Moses and Farrow, both of whom come off as credible and honestly believing their statements around the deaths, it's hard to know who to believe. And there may be layers of truth that are altered by each person's perspective of the events.
At the time of Moses' original post in 2018, Dylan released a statement on Twitter calling into question all of Moses' claims. "[His blog post is] easily disproven, [and] contradicts years of his own statements .... My brother is a troubled person. I'm so sorry he is doing this," she wrote. While Moses admitted to The Guardian that he had some issues, he said that made him more susceptible to abuse from Farrow, "I had a disability and emotional sensitivities, and that lent itself to being a target." Farrow herself stated Moses' claims were "completely made up," reports The New York Times. In a since-deleted tweet Ronan Farrow wrote, "I love and support my sister and I think her words speak for themselves," via People.
The Guardian asked Moses pointedly how he felt about his siblings' statements. He emotionally replied, "We grew up together. I am their older brother. We all shared the same mother. Even if you're not receiving that abuse directly, if you bear witness to it, it still impacts you in a deep way. I really hold all my siblings with compassion and understand there is a need to survive, however you can do it."