Former model Babi Christina Engelhardt on Monday claimed that she had an eight-year tryst with controversial filmmaker Woody Allen in the 1970s and 80s, beginning when she was 16 and Allen was 41. Speaking publicly about the alleged relationship for the first time to The Hollywood Reporter, Engelhardt describes an imbalance of power in which Allen dictated the terms of the relationship and she followed along. “Knowing he was a director, I didn’t argue,” she said. “I was coming from a place of devotion.”
She claims they only spent time together in his New York City penthouse apartment, where they were often joined by other women—including girlfriend Mia Farrow—for threesomes. She insisted, however, that she felt positively about her relationship with Allen even in the wake of the #MeToo movement. “It’s almost as if I’m now expected to trash him,” she said. “This is not ‘bring down this man.’ I’m talking about my love story. This made me who I am. I have no regrets.” In the years following the alleged relationship’s unraveling, Allen has faced widespread criticism over allegations of sexual assault by one of Farrow’s adopted children, Dylan Farrow, and for marrying one of her other adopted children, Soon-Yi Previn.