Neil Gaiman Responds After Multiple Women Accuse Author of Sexual Assault
Author Neil Gaiman denied allegations of sexual assault and abuse made by multiple women and reported in a New York magazine story earlier this week.
In a new statement posted to his website today, Gaiman wrote, “I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.” His denial arrives a day after the cover story published that included eight of Gaiman’s accusers — including four who previously shared their claims on the 2024 podcast series Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman. Gaiman also denied the previous allegations against him, and claimed all of his relationships were consensual.
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The magazine reviewed texts and emails between the women and friends, as well as messages sent between Gaiman and the women. The article includes alleged abusive behavior by Gaiman toward women who claim he forced them to perform degrading acts, and in some cases made sexual advances while his young son was present in the room.
One of the alleged accounts includes Scarlett Pavlovich, a former nanny who began working for Gaiman and his then-wife Amanda Palmer in New Zealand in February 2022 (the couple finalized their divorce later that year). Pavlovich accused Gaiman of attacking her on multiple occasions. She claims the author made her perform oral sex while his penis had urine on it, and once allegedly pushed his penis into her mouth, causing Pavlovich to vomit. Gaiman then allegedly told her to lick the vomit off his lap. Pavlovich also claimed that Gaiman had sex with her while his son was playing on an iPad in the same hotel room.
Pavlovich filed a police report against Gaiman in New Zealand in January 2023. A spokesperson said that the “matter has been closed.”
Gaiman denied the allegations in the New York magazine story through his legal representatives, calling them “false, not to mention, deplorable.”
In his post today, Gaiman said, “I went back to read the messages I exchanged with the women around and following the occasions that have subsequently been reported as being abusive. These messages read now as they did when I received them — of two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again.”
He later claimed, “Some of the horrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality.”
Kendra Stout, another woman who spoke to the magazine for the story, claimed she met Gaiman when she was 18 in 2003 and that he “talked at length about the dominant and submissive relationship he wanted out of me.” Stout alleged that they did not establish any “safe words” or “limits,” (standard elements of BDSM negotiations) and that Gaiman allegedly penetrated her with his finger and penis when she had a painful UTI while she told him, “No.” Stout filed a police report against him last October.
Following the allegations that surfaced last summer, several movie and television productions based on Gaiman’s books, including The Graveyard Book at Disney, have been halted.
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