Ronan Farrow

Ronan Farrow (b. December 19,1987) is an openly gay journalist and author of the current best-selling book Catch and Kill (2019) that describes the challenges in investigating the coverup of sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, whose trial is currently underway in New York. The term “Catch and Kill” refers to a technique by which disreputable media companies purchase stories and subsequently bury them, thus preventing publication of damaging material. Farrow also investigated similar accusations against other prominent men, including U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Mr. Farrow initially began his investigative reporting on Weinstein while an employee at NBC, which decided against publishing his initial findings in 2016 (i.e., "catch and kill"). Ronan then took his story to The New Yorker, and they published his investigative reports in October, 2017. The magazine subsequently won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for Farrow’s reporting. Farrow’s disclosures effectively ended the career of Weinstein and gave rise to the #Metoo movement. That year Ronan was included in Time magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People.

Farrow has worked as a lawyer, speechwriter, investigative reporter, author, television journalist and activist. He also held positions in the Obama administration and the office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In 2011 Ronan began dating podcast host and former presidential speechwriter Jon Lovett (37), who had also worked at NBC and the offices of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. They became engaged in 2019 and bought a home in Los Angeles last August. In addition to hosting Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It, Lovett works as a television producer and writer under the umbrella of Crooked Media, a Los Angeles based political media company, which Jon co-founded in 2017. 

Farrow remains based in NYC, where he enjoys spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline from the terrace of his Lower East Side penthouse apartment (below). Farrow and Lovett are an influential bi-coastal gay power couple.

Farrow holds a B.A. degree in Philosophy from Bard College, and at age 15 became the youngest ever graduate of that institution (he enrolled as a freshman at age 11). When he turned 16 he began studies at Yale Law School, where he received a J.D. degree in 2009, subsequently passing the New York state bar examinations. He was later a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University while working towards a doctorate in philosophy; he submitted his thesis in 2018.

Ronan has a nearly unbelievable and complicated family situation. He was born Satchel Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow as the grandson of Irish actress Maureen O’Sullivan, remembered for playing the role of Jane alongside Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan films of the 1930s and 40s. Among O’Sullivan’s children was actress Mia Farrow, who conceived Ronan when she was in a relationship with filmmaker Woody Allen. Although they never married and always maintained separate residences, she appeared in 13 of Woody Allen’s films. Mia had been previously married to legendary singer and actor Frank Sinatra and pianist and conductor André Previn.

Ronan is estranged from Woody Allen, who married Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and André Previn. Upon Allen’s marriage to Soon-Yi, Ronan stated, “He’s my father, married to my sister. That makes me his son and brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression.”

Enough said.

Sources:

Wikipedia, The Guardian, NPR, The Telegraph, The New Yorker