Mia Farrow on Wednesday night posted a lengthy statement about the deaths of three of her children, addressing what she called ‘vicious rumors’ about her family, after she was accused of digitally removing one of them from a photo.
Mia made the statement after one of her tweets from 2016 reemerged, which appeared to show her daughter Tam had been edited out of a picture with Hillary Clinton.
The photo showed son Ronan Farrow shaking hands with Clinton, but Tam seems to have been removed, and is a barely visible outline.
Mia had previously posted the image – with Tam fully visible – in 2012.
On Wednesday night Mia hit out at ‘vicious rumors based on untruths’.
In her statement, Mia – who had 14 children – discussed Tam’s death in 2000 at age 19, from an accidental overdose of prescription migraine pills.
She also discussed a second daughter, Lark, who died from HIV/AIDS aged 38, in 2008, and her son, Thaddeus, who took his own life in 2016 when he was 29.
Farrow’s family has been once again in the spotlight following the airing of a four-part HBO series, Allen v. Farrow.
The series focused on her daughter Dylan’s allegations that Woody Allen, her adoptive father, molested her when she was six years old.
Tam appears to be barely visible in a picture Mia posted to Twitter in 2016 (left) and appears to have been edited out from the original picture (right)
‘Few families are perfect, and any parent who has suffered the loss of a child knows that pain is ceaseless,’ wrote Farrow, the mother of 14 children.
‘However, some vicious rumors based on untruths have appeared online concerning the lives of three of my children. To honor their memory, their children and every family that has dealt with the death of a child, I am making this post.’
Lark was described in her statement as ‘an extraordinary woman’ and a ‘wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother to her own children’.
Farrow wrote: ‘Despite her illness she lived a fruitful and loving life with her children and longtime partner. She succumbed to her illness & died suddenly in the hospital on Christmas, in her partner’s arms.’
Tam, Farrow said, passed away in 2000 at age 19 ‘from an accidental prescription overdose related to the agonizing migraines she suffered, and her heart ailment.’
Mia Farrow, 76, issued a lengthy statement about her family on Wednesday night
Farrow is pictured with seven of her 14 children, including Soon Yi, standing next to her, who would go on to marry Farrow’s ex Woody Allen
Woody Allen, 83, has had his reputation severely damaged by accusations from Dylan Farrow
Farrow is seen with her daughter Lark in 1993. Lark died from HIV/AIDS in 2008, aged 38
Moses Farrow, who was adopted as a toddler by Mia and co-adopted by Woody Allen in 1991, disputed Tam’s death in a 2018 blog post and alleged it was a suicide.
‘Tam struggled with depression for much of her life, a situation exacerbated by my mother refusing to get her help, insisting that Tam was just ‘moody.’
‘One afternoon in 2000, after one final fight with Mia, which ended with my mother leaving the house, Tam committed suicide by overdosing on pills,’ Moses wrote.
‘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.’
In Moses’s blog, he also alleged that brother Thaddeus was abused by Farrow.
That claim has been disputed by nine of Mia’s other children.
Thaddeus was 29 when he died in 2016.
Farrow described her son in the statement as ‘courageous’ and ‘happily living with his partner’ before the relationship abruptly ended.
‘He took his own life,’ wrote Farrow.
Tam Farrow, with a cane, is seen in 1995, with Thaddeus. She passed away in 2000 at age 19
Thaddeus, who suffered from polio, is pictured in September 2000 with Ted Turner
Farrow said that the continued speculation about the trio’s deaths was ‘to dishonor their lives’ and tarnish their memories.
‘These are unspeakable tragedies,’ she wrote.
‘Any other speculation about their deaths is to dishonor their lives and the lives of their children and loved ones.
‘I am grateful to be the mother of fourteen children who have blessed me with sixteen grandchildren. Although we have known sorrow, our lives today are full of love and joy.
‘Everyone has their own battle to fight; their own sorrows that gnaw. I send you my best hopes and my love.’