Mia & Woody: Love and Betrayal Book

Unknowingly poised on the edge of melodrama, author Kristi Groteke innocently accepts a job as a nanny for a celebrity couple---Mia Farrow and Woody Allen. Little does she know that within the year, her life will be turned upside down, just as the lives of the famous couple and their children are---set against the backdrop of a seemingly routine life of a family, a furor erupts when Mia discovers that Woody is having an affair with her daughter Soon-Yi. And then,
in the midst of this angst comes the allegations of molest by Woody of the couple’s adopted daughter Dylan.

Before the storm, the author marvels at the simple routines of this family, from the Connecticut house to the Central Park West home that Mia shares with several children---some
biological and some adopted. Woody, of course, lives in his own duplex apartment across the Park, but visits frequently. In this fashion, the two have developed a semblance of normal family life for a dozen years, collaborating in movies and co-parenting the children.

Court battles ensue, and the author describes the stressful climate of the home while this is happening---it takes more than a year for everything to be resolved. But while it is playing out, the day-to-day lives of the family members change---subtly at first---but then dramatically, as the life they all once knew crumbles around them.

The author provides a true insider’s version of events, albeit from her point of view.

I especially enjoyed the glimpses of celebrity family life, for despite the traumatic events, a kind of normalcy was sought by the parties involved. And one fact shone through---Mia’s love for her children.