Frank Sinatra did not secretly father Ronan Farrow despite ‘absurd’ speculation, friend insists

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

In my reporting on women's reproductive rights, I've witnessed the critical role that independent journalism plays in protecting freedoms and informing the public.

Your support allows us to keep these vital issues in the spotlight. Without your help, we wouldn't be able to fight for truth and justice.

Every contribution ensures that we can continue to report on the stories that impact lives

Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

Frank Sinatra’s close friend has suggested it is “absurd” to believe that the legendary singer secretly fathered journalist Ronan Farrow.

Despite Woody Allen being publicly named as Farrow’s father, rumours have always existed that the journalist was secretly conceived during an affair between his mother, actor Mia Farrow, and Sinatra. The pair were later married between 1966 and 1968.

In 2013, Mia Farrow was asked whether Sinatra was the real father of her son, to which Farrow replied: “Possibly”.

Now Sinatra’s friend Tony Oppedisano has poured cold water over the speculation. In his new book Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours, Oppedisano suggests stories of Farrow’s secret paternity are nonsensical.

In the book, which has been excerpted by People Magazine, Oppedisano writes: “There’s been a lot of gossip about Frank possibly being Ronan’s biological father, rumours I believe I’m in a position to tamp down.”

Oppedisano claimed that he has cross-checked Sinatra’s 1987 schedule with the timings of what would have been Farrow’s conception.

“There are only two ways Frank could have fathered Ronan, both absurd,” he writes in the book. “Either Mia made a secret trip to shack up with Frank in his California home with [fourth wife] Barbara present, or Frank, wearing his always romantic colostomy bag, made a quick trip to Connecticut between his Atlantic City performances.”

He also insisted that secretly fathering a child, then never seeing them again, was not in Sinatra’s character.

“If Ronan had been Frank’s son,” Oppedisano writes, “Frank would have acknowledged him.”

In 2013, Ronan Farrow said he “gets a kick out of” rumours about his paternity, and was later asked point-blank on live television in 2017 whether Sinatra is secretly his father.

“Now, what do you think your father would think about what you’re doing now if he were alive?” asked TV personality Bill Maher, in regards to Farrow’s work exposing sexual misconduct in Hollywood.

Maher then suggested that Farrow looks far more like Sinatra than Allen: “You do own a mirror, don’t you?”

Oppedisano’s book, which is available to buy now, also claims that Sinatra always believed that Marilyn Monroe was murdered due to her romantic involvement with John F Kennedy and his brother, Robert.