Discriminating Dad
Woody endlessly doted on Dylan, as remembered by him in his book, as well as by Mia and family friends in new interviews. He would go to FAO Schwarz before it opened so he could privately shop for toys, and one time, as Fletcher told it, he had Dylan’s teddy bear flown first class from one city to another when she left it behind on a vacation, so she wouldn’t have to spend one night without it.
So when Mia got pregnant, Woody had no qualms about openly hoping the child would be a girl. When they found out they were having a boy, Woody was “disappointed,” Mia recalls. When Satchel (who would one day choose to go by Ronan instead) was born, his mom recalls Woody taking Dylan away so that she could be alone with the newborn, though she wanted to be with both of the children. And Woody remembers in his book that Mia “monopolized [their son’s] time, and short of me forcing the issue, he was rarely available.”
He claimed Mia was so “delirious” with Satchel, she didn’t have much time for the other children. Dylan recalls the feeling slowly starting to be impressed upon her that Mia was more her brother’s parent, and Woody was more her parent. “I was Daddy’s girl, you know,” she says. “I was told that she didn’t want me around or that she didn’t have time for me, or that she was too busy.”
However, home movies show Woody spending time with both kids, and in the series Ronan recalls having a normal father-son relationship with him as a child. “He was my dad, he was raising us,” says the journalist, who has been a stalwart supporter of Dylan’s since she came forward with her story.