Diane Keaton has taken to Twitter to express her support for her friend writer-director Woody Allen amid re-publicised sexual abuse allegations made by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.

The actress, who won an Academy Award for her performance in Allen’s critically-acclaimed Annie Hall, took to Twitter on Monday 29 January, saying:

“Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him.”

Keaton also shared a link to an interview Allen gave in 1992, after his daughter Dylan Farrow made sexual abuse allegations against him as a child.

Allen has long been accused of sexual abuse by Farrow, who he legally adopted in 1991 (he had been in a relationship with her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow, since 1980).

In 2014, Farrow wrote an open letter for The New York Times detailing the abuse she allegedly suffered at Allen’s hands. She had previously accused him of assaulting her in 1993, when she was eight years old, and said that the abuse occurred when she was seven.

Allen was not charged in that case, in part due to Farrow’s perceived fragility as a child witness. The judge said he could not conclude what had happened, but did state: “Mr Allen’s behaviour toward Dylan was grossly inappropriate and […] measures must be taken to protect her.”

Allen’s sexual conduct has come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the invigorated conversation that has emerged around sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood from the Time’s Up initiative. 

In December, Farrow wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in which she questioned Hollywood’s “selective” revolution. And earlier this month, Farrow gave her first televised interview in which she further discussed the long-standing allegations. 

As such an ever-increasing list of actresses and actors have now publicly distanced themselves - from Greta Gerwig and Mira Sorvino to Timothée Chalamet – from the director, with some expressing regret for having worked with him in the past. And in recent days, Kate Winslet.

And writer-director Judd Apatow – known for This Is 40 and Knocked Up – has taken to Twitter to call Keaton out on her recent tweet.

“I see a man who wanted what he wanted and didn’t care that he was having an affair with a 19-year-old when he was 54 who was also his daughter’s sister,” Apatow wrote.

“He also took nude photos of this child who he had known since she was nine and left them out for his family to see. Narcissism.”

Woody Allen denies all allegations made against him.

Images: Rex Features / Twitter