Soon-Yi Previn was born Oh Soon-hee in South Korea. She was reportedly found abandoned in
Seoul, South Korea, on February 12, 1976. Previn has said that as a young child, she lived on the streets and obtained food from trash cans. At the time, U.S. law allowed two
visas per family for international adoption, and the couple had already adopted
Vietnamese infants Lark Song Previn and Summer "Daisy" Song Previn. Farrow asked her friends Rose and
William Styron to request that U.S. Representative
Michael J. Harrington sponsor a
private bill to authorize Previn's adoption. This bill, HR 1552, was passed as Private Law 95-37 on May 15, 1978, paving Previn's way to immigrate to the United States. Just after the adoption, Farrow wrote to
Nancy Sinatra about Previn, saying, "Now she speaks English and is learning to read, write, play piano, dance ballet & ride a horse". Farrow later said that at the time of her adoption, Previn had learning disabilities. Allen later adopted two of Farrow's adopted children: Dylan Farrow and Moses Farrow. Allen's adoption of Dylan and Moses was finalized on December 17, 1991. Farrow and Allen also became the biological parents of a son,
Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow (later known simply as Ronan Farrow), on December 19, 1987. Previn graduated from
Marymount School of New York in 1991. After a summer as a sales associate at Bergdorf Goodman, she began her freshman year as a commuter student at
Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, in September 1991. She has taught fourth grade at the
Spence School, a private school in Manhattan. In 2018, Previn's brother,
Moses Farrow, confirmed that Farrow had abused Soon-Yi, and said that he had been physically abused by Farrow as well.
Acting During her teens, Previn made an uncredited appearance in Allen's
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), which starred Farrow. She appeared as an extra in
Paul Mazursky's 1991 film
Scenes from a Mall, == Personal life ==