Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow was born on December 19, 1987, in New York City, to actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen. He is their only biological child.[1][2] His given names honorNational Baseball Hall of Fame pitcherSatchel Paige[3] and his maternal grandmother, Irish-American actressMaureen O'Sullivan. He is known professionally as Ronan Farrow and uses the surname "Farrow" to avoid confusion. His siblings bear the surname Previn if born or adopted during Farrow's marriage to composerAndré Previn, and Farrow if adopted after their divorce.[4] His mother's family is Catholic, and his father is Jewish.[5]
Farrow is estranged from his father, Woody Allen.[6] After Allen marriedSoon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and André Previn, Farrow commented, "He's my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression."[7]
In a 2013 interview withVanity Fair, Mia Farrow said that Ronan could "possibly" be the biological child of singerFrank Sinatra, with whom she said she had "never really split up."[8][9] Ronan Farrow tweeted, "Listen, we're all *possibly* Frank Sinatra's son."[10] In a 2015CBS Sunday Morning interview, Sinatra's daughterNancy dismissed the suggestion that her father was Farrow's biological father, calling it "nonsense". His other daughter Tina said her father had avasectomy years before Farrow's birth.[11][12] Sinatra's biographerJames Kaplan also disputes Sinatra's potential paternity of Farrow in his bookSinatra: The Chairman (2015). He said that Sinatra was splitting his time betweenHawaii andPalm Springs with his wifeBarbara Marx Sinatra and was in ill health during the time when Farrow would have been conceived.[13]
Farrow has refused to discuss DNA analysis. He has said that, despite their estrangement, "Woody Allen, legally, ethically, personally was absolutely a father in our family."[14] In a 2018New York magazine article, Allen said that Farrow may not be his biological son: "In my opinion, he's my child ... I think he is, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. I paid for child support for him for his whole childhood, and I don't think that's very fair if he's not mine."[15][16]
From 2001 to 2009, Farrow served as aUNICEF Spokesperson for Youth,[25] advocating for children and women caught up in theongoing crisis in Sudan'sDarfur region[26] and assisting in fundraising and addressing United Nations affiliated groups in the United States.[26][27] During this time, he also made joint trips to the Darfur region ofSudan with his mother, who is aUNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.[28] He subsequently advocated for the protection of Darfuri refugees.[29] Following his time in Sudan, Farrow was affiliated with theGenocide Intervention Network.[30]
In 2009, Farrow joined theObama administration, as Special Adviser for Humanitarian and NGO Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.[29][32][33] He was part of a team recruited by diplomatRichard Holbrooke,[34] for whom Farrow had previously worked as a speechwriter.[35] For the next two years, Farrow was responsible for "overseeing the U.S. Government's relationships with civil society and nongovernmental actors" in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[29][32]
In 2011, Farrow was appointed by Secretary of StateHillary Clinton as her Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues[36] and Director of the State Department's Office of Global Youth Issues.[29] The office was created as a result of a multi-year task-force appointed by Clinton to review the United States' economic and social policies on youth.[37] Farrow co-chaired the working group with seniorUnited States Agency for International Development staff member David Barth beginning in 2010.[38][39] Farrow's appointment and the creation of the office were announced by Clinton as part of a refocusing on youth following theArab Spring revolutions.[40] Farrow was responsible for U.S. youth policy and programming with an aim toward "empower[ing] young people as economic and civic actors."[29] Farrow concluded his term as Special Adviser in 2012, with his policies and programs continuing under his successor.[41]
After leaving government, Farrow began aRhodes Scholarship atMagdalen College, Oxford. He studied toward a DPhil, researching the exploitation of the poor in developing countries, and submitted his thesis in October 2018.[42]
Farrow hosted the investigative segment "Undercover with Ronan Farrow" on NBC'sToday.[53][54] Launched in June 2015,[55] the series was billed as providing Farrow's look at the stories "you don't see in the headlines every day", often featuring crowd-sourced story selection and covering topics from the labor rights of nail salon workers to mental healthcare issues tosexual assault on campus.[56][57][58]
On May 11, 2016,The Hollywood Reporter published a guest column by Farrow in which he drew comparisons between the long-term absence of journalistic inquiry into therape allegations leveled againstBill Cosby and thesexual abuse allegations levied against his father Woody Allen by Farrow's sister Dylan Farrow (who was 7 years old at the time of the alleged abuse).[54] Farrow detailed first-hand accounts of journalists, biographers, and major publications purposefully omitting from their work decades of rape allegations targeting Cosby.[54] Similarly, Farrow recounts the efforts of Allen's publicist,Leslee Dart, to mount a media campaign focused on countering Dylan Farrow's allegations, while at the same time vindicating Allen:
Every day, colleagues at news organizations forwarded me the e‑mails blasted out by Allen's powerful publicist, who had years earlier orchestrated a robust publicity campaign to validate my father's sexual relationship with another one of my siblings. Those e‑mails featured talking points ready-made to be converted into stories, complete with validators on offer—therapists, lawyers, friends, anyone willing to label a young woman confronting a powerful man as crazy, coached, vindictive. At first, they linked to blogs, then to high-profile outlets repeating the talking points – a self-perpetuating spin machine.[54]
Farrow reiterated his support for Dylan and expressed his unwavering belief in her allegations:
I believe my sister. This was always true as a brother who trusted her and, even at 5 years old, was troubled by our father's strange behavior around her: Climbing into her bed in the middle of the night, forcing her to suck his thumb – behavior that had prompted him to enter into therapy focused on his inappropriate conduct with children prior to the allegations.[54]
In closing his guest column, Farrow expressed his view of media culture as one that actively discourages victims of abuse from coming forward.[54] Farrow said that victims are pressured to remain silent by threat of "having those tough newsroom conversations, making the case for burning bridges with powerful public figures"[54] and "going up against angry fans and angry publicists".[54] Farrow's regard for Hollywood (and media in general), as represented in his 2016Hollywood Reporter guest column, foreshadows his investigation into the alleged misconduct ofHarvey Weinstein. His reporting on this was published the following year.
In 2018 Farrow was included inTime's "100 Most Influential People in the World" list.[63][64] On May 7, 2018,The New Yorker published a joint article by Farrow and reporterJane Mayer stating thatNew York State Attorney GeneralEric Schneiderman had physically abused at least four women with whom he had been romantically involved during his term in office, and that he had habitually abused alcohol and prescription drugs. Schneiderman resigned within hours of publication of the article on the following day.[65][66] Mayer and Farrow reported that they had confirmed the women's allegations with photographs of contusions and with statements from friends with whom the alleged victims had confided subsequent to the claimed assaults.[65] Though he denied the allegations, Schneiderman said that he resigned because they "effectively prevent me from leading the office's work".[67] GovernorAndrew Cuomo assigned a special prosecutor to investigate the filing of possible criminal charges against Schneiderman.[68]
On July 27, 2018,The New Yorker published an article by Farrow saying that six women had accused media executive andCBS CEOLeslie Moonves of harassment and intimidation, and that dozens more described abuse at his company.[69] On August 23,The New Yorker published an article by Adam Entous and Farrow stating that top aides of the Trump White House circulated a conspiracy memo entitled "The Echo Chamber" about PresidentBarack Obama's aides.[70]
In early 2019, Farrow said he and another journalist received demands fromAmerican Media, Inc. that sought to extort orblackmail him.[72] He investigated the concealment by theMIT Media Lab of its involvement withJeffrey Epstein, leading to the resignation ofJoi Ito, director of the Media Lab, and an internal investigation byMIT.[73]
On July 3, 2021,The New Yorker published an investigative article by Farrow and journalistJia Tolentino detailing theBritney Spears conservatorship dispute. The article described the events related to the establishment of theconservatorship, alleged thatBritney Spears was subject to a variety of abuses under her fatherJamie Spears's control, and included testimonies from various named sources close to Britney.[74]
Farrow appeared on the daytime talk showThe View as a guest co-host on December 3, 2019.[78][79] Farrow starred as a Guest Judge on Ru Paul'sDrag Race All Stars 7 All Winners in episode 10: "The Kennedy Davenport Center Honors Hall of Shade", airing on July 15, 2022. He sat alongsideRu Paul,Michelle Visage, andRoss Mathews. In 2024, he was a guest judge on the fourteenth episode ofRuPaul's Drag Race season 16 (episode "Booked and Blessed"). He also has a small motion-capture role in the 2024 remake of the video gameRiven.[80]
In January 2018, Farrow signed a three-year deal atHBO to produce and develop documentaries.[81] Farrow served as an executive producer onEndangered directed byHeidi Ewing andRachel Grady, focusing on threats against journalists which released in June 2022.[82] In 2024, Farrow starred in and producedSurveilled focusing on cyberintelligence firmNSO Group.[83]
In 2008, Farrow was awardedRefugees International's McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award for "extraordinary service to refugees and displaced people".[84] In 2009, Farrow was namedNew York magazine's "New Activist" of the year and included on its list of individuals "on the verge of changing their worlds".[85] In 2011,Harper's Bazaar listed him as an "up-and-coming politician".[29][86] In 2012, he was ranked number one in "Law and Policy" onForbes magazine's "30 Under 30" Most Influential People.[87] He was also awarded an honorary doctorate byDominican University of California in 2012.[88] In its 2013 retrospective of men born in its 80 years of publication,Esquire magazine named him the man of the year of his birth.[89]
In February 2014, Farrow received the third annualCronkite Award for "Excellence in Exploration and Journalism" from Reach the World, in recognition of his work since 2001, including his being aUNICEF Spokesperson for Youth in 2001.[90][91] Some media outlets noted that the award came three days afterRonan Farrow Daily began airing and suggested that the award was therefore not justified.[92][93] Farrow is the recipient of the Stonewall Community Foundation's 2016 Vision Award for his reporting ontransgender issues.[94] He was also recognized by thePoint Foundation in 2018, receiving the Point Courage Award for his in-depth reporting on#MeToo.[95][96] In July 2018, Farrow won theNational Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association's Journalist of the Year award.[97] In 2019, he was listed among the 40 Under 40 List put out byConnecticut Magazine.[98] He was also named theOut100 Journalist of the Year.[99]
In May 2020,The New York Times reporterBen Smith published an article titled "Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?" and asserted that some of Farrow's journalism did not hold up to scrutiny.[100][101] Farrow stated in a response that he stood by his reporting.[102] In aSlate piece,Ashley Feinberg described Smith's report as an "overcorrection for resistance journalism" and opined that his approach showed "broad-mindedness, sacrificing accuracy for some vague, centrist perception of fairness."[103]
Farrow began datingpodcast host and former presidential speech writerJon Lovett in 2011.[107] The two became engaged in 2019 after Farrow wrote a proposal to Lovett in the draft for his bookCatch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators.[107] The couple bought a $1.87 million home in Los Angeles in August 2019.[105] In March 2023, Lovett stated on his podcast that the couple had separated.[108]
^"LIFE.com: Cheating Scandals of the Stars".Life viaXfinity. n.d. Archived fromthe original on December 3, 2013. RetrievedNovember 21, 2013.After Allen and Soon-Yi wed in 1997, his biological son Ronan Seamus Farrow said, 'He's my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression... I cannot have a relationship with my father and be morally consistent.'
^"Nancy Sinatra Opens Up About Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow & Son Ronan". E!. RetrievedNovember 6, 2017.In a 2015CBS Sunday Morning interview, Nancy Sinatra denied that Farrow was her half-brother. 'Mia's son [is Sinatra's son]? Oh, nonsense,' Nancy Jr. toldCBS Sunday Morning. '[Frank Sinatra] would just laugh it off. We didn't laugh it off because it was affecting my kids...'We loved Mia,' she told the outlet. 'Mia was one of our [family] ...like a sister and we had a good time,Tina [Sinatra] and Mia and I did'."
^ab"Ronan S. Farrow Named 2012 Rhodes Scholar" (Press release). Bard College at Simon's Rock. November 2011. Archived fromthe original on October 6, 2013. RetrievedJanuary 24, 2016.Farrow, '99 was the youngest student ever admitted to Simon's Rock at age 11. ... At age 15 he was the youngest graduate of Bard College and was among the youngest students to have entered Yale Law School, at 16.
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