From Woody Allen's memoir

Man, I should read Woody Allen's memoir. I should have at least read more ABOUT it. Here's from Showbiz 411, March 23, 2020. Click the link to read the whole thing:

...More shockingly, Woody reveals in the book something his adopted son, Moses Farrow, told him. That Ronan’s famous childhood story of spending months in a hospital with a leg infection– and having to use crutches for a long time– is not true.

Woody writes: “Listen to Moses, who was there and described things:

“After Ronan finished law school, Mia had him undergo cosmetic surgery to extend his legs and gain a few inches in height. I told her I couldn’t imagine putting someone through the ordeal for cosmetic reasons. My mother’s response was simple, ‘You need to be tall to have a career in politics.’

It was, of course, a long and painful process for Ronan, who had his legs broken a few times and reconstructed to lengthen them. The insurance company didn’t see the medical necessity and refused to pay for it. Of course, Mia and Ronan tell a different story but that’s what happened.” The covering story handed out about Ronan’s knee problems, his walker, and months of reconstruction was based on his actual contracting of a disease while working abroad. This was supposed to account for the surgery, but Moses was present during much of the painful process. Meanwhile, Mia might put Ronan through this leg-breaking barbarism to satisfy her plans for his future, while I’m the one the judge sticks with a monitor.”

Photographic evidence from another website.

The surgery, by the way, exists and is even more popular today apparently. It does sound barbaric.

Woody is held up now for ridicule by the Farrows as a parent. But Woody — who has raised two beautiful girls with Soon Yi, recalls of Mia’s parenting :

“When Satchel was born, things took an even darker quantum leap. From his birth, Mia expropriated Satchel. She took him into her bedroom, her bed, and insisted on breast-feeding him. She kept telling me she intended to do it for years, and that anthropological studies have shown positive results from tribes where breast-feeding goes on much longer than on the Upper West Side. Years later, two very professional and perceptive women who worked in Mia’s house, Sandy Boluch and Judy Hollister, the first as babysitter and the second as housekeeper, described numerous incidents. Sandy reports seeing Mia sometimes sleeping in the nude with Satchel (now Ronan) a number of times till he was eleven years old. I don’t know what the anthropologists would say about that, but I can imagine what the guys in the poolroom would say.”

Ronan, who was named Satchel at birth, was five when Woody and Mia’s split came.His sister, Dylan was 7. After the public scandal and custody hearings, Woody was separated from the children for good. He writes:

When she [Dylan] got a little older and I imagined she would realize how she was being used, I wrote her, just sweet, affectionate, brief letters asking how she was doing. No commercials for me. The letters were all intercepted by Ronan and I received curt, evasive answers that began, “I told Dylan about your letter and she is not interested.”

I finally wrote Satchel and said, “Do you always open your sister’s mail and read it?” No answer except he wrote back that if I really wanted to help out, I should send money.I already was supporting them generously by law, but if Mia was right about Satchel being the son of Frank Sinatra, then I was really being bilked.”