Mia Farrow took to Twitter Wednesday night to respond to “vicious rumors” about three of her dead children after a family photo emerged that appeared to show one of them digitally removed from the snap.
“As a mother of fourteen children, my family means everything to me. While I chose a career that placed me in the public arena, most of my children have elected to live very private lives. I respect each of their wishes, which is why I am selective in my social media posts,” Farrow, 76, wrote in a screenshot posted to Twitter.
“Few families are perfect, and any parent who has suffered the loss of a child knows that pain is merciless and ceaseless. 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 posting this message.”
Farrow wrote about three of her children who have died starting with Tam, a disabled child the actress adopted from Vietnam who passed at age 19 in 2000 from apparent heart failure and was the one scrubbed from the family photo.
Farrow wrote she died “from an accidental prescription overdose related to the agonizing migraines she suffered, and her heart ailment,” but her brother Moses previously claimed in a blog post Tam committed suicide after an argument with her mom.
“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 in the 2018 post.
“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.”
On Tuesday, a photo resurfaced that Farrow had posted to Twitter in 2016 for “Throwback Thursday,” showing her son Ronan shaking hands with Hillary Clinton with Tam in the background — but it appeared as if she’d been digitally removed from the picture.
Beyond explaining the cause of death, Farrow wrote nothing else about Tam, aside from calling her a “beloved daughter” before explaining the deaths of two of her other children, Lark and Thaddeus.
“My daughter Lark was an extraordinary woman, a wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother to her own children. She died at 35 from complications of HIV/AIDS, which she contracted from a previous partner. 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,” Farrow wrote.
“My courageous son Thaddeus was 29 and happily living with his partner; we were all anticipating a wedding, but when the relationship abruptly ended, he took his own life,” the post went on.
“These are unspeakable tragedies. 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.”