Former model and actor Christina Engelhardt claims she started a secret sexual relationship with Woody Allen a few months before her 17th birthday in the 1970s, when she was younger than the legal age of consent of 17 in New York state.

According to an interview in the Hollywood Reporter, Engelhardt – currently working as an assistant to veteran producer Robert Evans – said she met Allen in October 1976 and the pair subsequently commenced a relationship that lasted for eight years, and of which she says she has “no regrets”. Engelhardt says Allen introduced her to Mia Farrow after Allen met the Rosemary’s Baby actor in 1979 and began a relationship with Farrow.

The interview includes a 2001 note from Allen, which Engelhardt says is the last time the director contacted her. The note reads: “I hope you’re happy and well. I recall our times together fondly. If you’re ever in New York I would love you to meet my wife — she’d like you. We get out to California every so often. If you’d like I’d call and perhaps we could all get together.”

Allen’s film-making career is in limbo after sex assault allegations made by the director’s daughter, Dylan Farrow, which Allen denies. His most recent film, A Rainy Day in New York, was shot in September and October 2017, but is yet to be released by its producers, Amazon Studios. A number of former collaborators, including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Hall and Colin Firth, have publicly disassociated themselves from him, while others, including Javier Bardem and Jude Law, have defended Allen.

Allen’s representative has been contacted, but has not responded.