Neil Gaiman Accused of Rape.

[Soontir C'boath]

More Women Accuse Author Neil Gaiman of Sexual Assault
A former babysitter for Gaiman claims he raped and degraded her on multiple occasions, including in front of his young son, allegations which the author denies

By Jon Blistein

January 13, 2025

More women have come forward with sexual assault allegations against author Neil Gaiman, including a woman who worked as a babysitter for Gaiman. The story in New York Magazine, which was published early Monday morning, offers a deep dive into Gaiman’s life, marriage and split with Amanda Palmer, and the assault and abuse allegations that first emerged against the author last year.

Eight of Gaiman’s accusers spoke for the story — including four who previously shared their claims on the 2024 podcast series Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman — though it largely centers on claims brought by the former nanny, Scarlett Pavlovich. New York Magazine also reviewed texts and emails between the women and friends, as well as messages sent between Gaiman and the women.

Gaiman did not speak for the piece, though denied several specific claims through legal representatives. Gaiman has denied the previous allegations against him, too, claiming all of his relationships have been consensual. Palmer also did not speak for the piece, though several of her friends did. Representatives for Gaiman did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

Pavlovich, who’d struck up a friendship with Palmer in June 2020, started working as a nanny for Gaiman and Palmer in New Zealand in February 2022 (the couple finalized their divorce later that year). She alleges that, on multiple occasions, Gaiman raped, assaulted, and degraded her, including one instance that she said took place in a small hotel room while Gaiman and Palmer’s son was also in the room, playing on an iPad.

The first alleged attack, according to Pavlovich, took place the first day she babysat. Gaiman and Palmer’s son was actually away on a playdate for most of the day, so, Pavlovich says, Gaiman offered her the chance to take a bath in a clawfoot tub in the garden. She did, but was surprised when Gaiman came back naked and allegedly got into the tub with her, and asked Pavlovich to sit on her lap.

“The next part is really amorphous,” Pavlovich told New York. “But I can tell you that he put his fingers straight into my ass and tried to put his penis in my ass. And I said, ‘No, no.’ Then he tried to rub his penis between my breasts, and I said ‘no’ as well. Then he asked if he could come on my face, and I said ‘no,’ but he did anyway. He said, ‘Call me ‘master,’ and I’ll come.’ He said, ‘Be a good girl. You’re a good little girl.’”

Soon after, according to texts reviewed by New York, Palmer asked Pavlovich not only if she would babysit again but if she would consider staying at the house for the foreseeable future. Pavlovich, who was broke and had struggled with homelessness in the past, accepted.

She also admitted to feeling confused in the wake of the attack, saying, “You’re not thinking in a linear or logical fashion, but the mind is trying to process it in the ways that it can.”

After accepting Palmer’s offer, Pavlovich texted Gaiman, “I am consumed by thoughts of you, the things you will do to me. I’m so hungry. What a terrible creature you’ve turned me into.”

While Palmer and Gaiman were divorcing at the time, Palmer’s friends said Palmer “still had some faith in [Gaiman’s] decency,” according to the magazine, and even warned Gaiman to stay away from Pavlovich: “I remember specifically her saying, ‘You could really hurt this person and break her; keep your hands off of her,’” said one friend, who is not named in the story.

But according to Pavlovich, Gaiman attacked her on multiple occasions. She claims Gaiman made her perform oral sex while his penis had urine on it, and once allegedly pushed his penis into her mouth with such force that Pavlovich vomited. Gaiman then allegedly told her to lick the vomit off his lap and the couch.

She also accused Gaiman of beating her with his belt, then anally raping her, first without lubricant, and then using butter as a lubricant. Afterward, Gaiman allegedly called Pavlovich a “slave” and told her to “clean him up.” Pavlovich refused at first, to which she claims Gaiman replied, “Are you defying your master?” Pavlovich said she “had to lick my own shit.”

Other women have also said Gaiman told them to call him “master,” and Pavlovich even claims that, after a week working as a babysitter, Gaiman and Palmer’s son began demanding she call him “master,” as well. Gaiman allegedly once told his child, “Now, now, Scarlett’s not a slave. No, you mustn’t.”

According to Pavlovich, though, Gaiman did not seem to have boundaries around his son. She claimed that she once sat with Gaiman and the boy as they watched a TV show. Gaiman allegedly put his arm around them both, then grabbed Pavlovich’s breasts under her shirt.

The hotel incident allegedly occurred on Feb. 19, 2022. The story states that Gaiman sometimes took his son to a hotel for a night as a treat, and this time, Pavlovich claims he asked her to babysit while he got a massage. Later that night, while the boy played on his iPad, Pavlovich claimed that Gaiman claimed that Gaiman pulled Pavlovich onto the lone double bed in the room, put the covers over them, and began to have sex with her while speaking to his son. Pavlovich said she mouthed, “What the fuck are you doing?” to Gaiman. She recalls him telling his son, “You should really get off the iPad.”

Afterward, Pavlovich claimed Gaiman went to the bathroom, urinated on his hand, returned to the bed, and told Pavlovich to “lick it off.” Gaiman then allegedly returned to the bathroom, naked from the waist down, and demanded oral sex from Pavlovich before she could leave while the door was still open.

Gaiman, through his legal representatives, denied the allegations, calling them “false, not to mention, deplorable.”

Pavlovich said she eventually told Palmer about some of these alleged incidents (including those in the bath and hotel room), though did not describe them as sexual assault at the time. According to one of Palmer’s friends, the musician Lance Horne, Palmer called Gaiman that night and asked about the alleged hotel-room incident and if their son had been wearing headphones. Horne said Gaiman replied “no,” then hung up.

Pavlovich shared a text she received from Gaiman afterward: “Amanda tells me that you are having a rough time and you are really upset with me about what we did. I feel awful about this. Would you like to talk about it? Is there anything I can do to make anything better?” Pavlovich said she was hopeful she’d be able to fix the situation and responded the following day, “Hey. We’ll speak soon … hope you are doing good.”

Pavlovich also spoke about Gaiman with a friend named Misha Anaru. Both Anaru and her partner, Kris Taylor, a doctor of psychology who’d lectured on coercion, consent, and rape, said they believed Gaiman had raped Pavlovich, even though Pavolvich had not used that word or “sexual assault” to describe what had happened. Anaru shared texts between herself and Palmer, where Anaru said “the majority of my rage is directed at Neil,” but also expressed her dismay with Palmer for putting Pavlovich in that situation. “Did you not see this coming a mile away?” Anaru wrote.

In a different text exchange between Pavlovich and Gaiman, Gaiman mentioned Anaru’s texts, which Palmer had allegedly told him about. “I’m a monster in it, and Amanda seems to have bought it hook line and sinker,” Gaiman wrote. He also apologized for “bringing any upset” into Pavlovich’s life, adding, “I thought that we were a good thing and a very consensual thing indeed.”

Pavlovich said she was feeling “disconnected from everybody else” at the time and worried about upsetting Gaiman. She texted him back, “It was consensual (and wonderful!),” adding that Anaru had been “triggered by something I think.”

Pavlovich’s allegations, like others against Gaiman, often involve acts associated with BDSM (bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism). While several of Gaiman’s accusers say that, at points, they went along with Gaiman, they also claim that he frequently crossed the crucial boundaries BDSM requires: That all parties consent to every action.

Two women who spoke for the story and who’d never spoken to each other each compared Gaiman to an anglerfish, which lures its prey with a bioluminescent bulb: “Instead of a light,” one said, “he would dangle a floppy-haired, soft-spoken British guy.”

Another woman who spoke for the story, Kendra Stout, says she met Gaiman when she was 18 in 2003. “He talked at length about the dominant and submissive relationship he wanted out of me,” Stout said, though he claimed he never asked what she wanted, nor did they establish any “safe words,” “aftercare,” or “limits,” which are standard elements of BDSM negotiations. Stout said Gaiman once penetrated her with his finger and penis while she had a painful UTI while she told him, “No.” She filed a police report against Gaiman last October. (A rep for Gaiman did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.)

Pavlovich filed her own police report against Gaiman in New Zealand in January 2023, accusing him of sexual assault. A spokesperson said that the “matter has been closed.”

Well at this point, who's next?

[LadyTevar]

If by "who's next" you mean who will step forward and tell their own "He raped me" story, I fear we're going to find a long line of young women.

I'd heard something about this years ago, but it was quickly covered up. It was simply a matter of time before he, like MZB, like Asimov, like Piers Anthony, had his actions dragged into the light.

[Zaune]

Slightly off-topic, but... Asimov? That one's news to me.

I don't think I want to seek further details. This one is bad enough.

[LadyTevar]

Slightly off-topic, but... Asimov? That one's news to me.

I don't think I want to seek further details. This one is bad enough.

I do not recall if there were any rape allegations against Azimov. There were stories of inappropriate fondling at Cons, and young women were warned not to be alone with him. Peirs Anthony has been accused of pedophilia and misogyny, and it's definitely all over his writing. And... well... all of Marion Zimmer Bradley's dirty laundry came out after she died.

[Rogue 9]

If by "who's next" you mean who will step forward and tell their own "He raped me" story, I fear we're going to find a long line of young women.

I think he means which celebrity will turn out to have done similar next.

[LadyTevar]

If by "who's next" you mean who will step forward and tell their own "He raped me" story, I fear we're going to find a long line of young women.

I think he means which celebrity will turn out to have done similar next.

Whomever it is, there will have been signs before, and people will have known but not said anything.

[Zaune]

John Scalzi provides a pretty good summary of the situation from the perspective of someone who's just had to find out something awful about a man he once called friend.

If you want to know when I pretty much drew a line though my friendship with Neil Gaiman, it was when Neil acknowledged that he made moves on his early-20s nanny on her first day of employment. This meant that the absolute best case scenario of this whole situation was that he didn’t have the sense or wisdom to understand that making a move on a woman 40 years his junior, economically dependent on him, and whom he had met just literally hours before, was an extremely questionable idea. And by extremely questionable I mean dude what the fuck how do you not understand the actual consent issues involved here. The answer I came to is he probably did understand, and that when all was said and done, the “absolute best case scenario,” which is still very terrible, was not where we would end up. And indeed, that’s not where we are today.

And, while you should in no way consider me anywhere but on the periphery of any of this, please direct your attention and care to those who rather persuasively allege harm at his hand, it still fucking hurts. Neil’s been a friend, he’s someone whose work I’ve admired immensely, and it’s not entirely inaccurate to say that I owe a fair amount of the trajectory of my career to him. In 2006, he declined a spot on the finalist list for the Best Novel Hugo, which meant that the next book in the vote tally moved into the list. That book was Old Man’s War. We didn’t know each other at the time and he didn’t know which book would benefit from his action, but that doesn’t matter. It was a huge boost for me in the SFF community, and I thanked him for it when we finally did meet in 2009. He’s been kind to me and to my family and I’ve been happy to know him, and I think he was happy to know me.

Nothing about him having been my friend or boosting my career excuses or mitigates his actions, both alleged and admitted. This is not a defense of him. He’s done what he’s done and as noted above, the absolute best case scenario is still terrifically bad. The acknowledgement of friendship is context.

Here are two things about me, one which you know and one which you may not. The first is that I’m well-known for having public opinions on the internet, and the second is that when I get stressed and upset about things in my personal life I get real quiet and internal about it. I acknowledge this seems at least superficially contradictory, but I don’t think it is: there’s “public persona” me and there’s “private life” me. They’re both me, tuned differently, and I’ve made the point over the years that both modes exist. Usually having both is not a problem! But when someone you consider a pretty good friend who is also a public individual fucks up badly, well, then it becomes a problem. Or at least, complicated.

When the first set of allegations came out last year, I made a brief post about it and then otherwise kept quiet, because this was my friend and I needed to work out what was going on, and how a person I had as a friend had this other part to his life that was for me new and rotten information, and also there was the rest of my life to deal with, which is not insignificant. This was not enough for some people and maybe still isn’t, and that’s their opinion to have. Likewise, when I decided for myself that I was out, I didn’t make a public declaration of it. No matter how public he or I are, our friendship existed in that other sphere too, and that sphere is where I made that decision. I was out, and when it was done, in my head, it was done. Again, this will not be enough for some people, and again, that’s their opinion to have.

Why bring it up now? One, because I know other people who are being run through the same wringer with this, dealing with the person they knew and this other person they didn’t, but they’re actually the same person and now they have to integrate all of it into their understanding. I want them to know, from the bottom of my heart: fucking same. Some of these folks are friends of his. Some are fans. Some are both! All of us are sitting with it, and while, again, we are all on the periphery of harm here, it’s still something we have to work on. Some will do it publicly, some will do it privately, some will take more time than others to get where they’re going with this. They should be able to do it how they want. Maybe others should offer them some grace about it.

Two, because I’ve done my thinking about it, made my decisions, and have had time to live those decisions and am at a point where talking about it doesn’t make me feel sick or pressured to say something more than I’m prepared to say. Neil’s been a friend, and an important person to me, and someone I’ve been happy to know. But the friendship has been drawn down and done, and at this point, given everything I’ve written above, I don’t think he’ll complain much about that. He’s got a lot of work to do, and I hope he gets to it soon.

(Three, because I see some deeply shitty people hoping I’m “next,” which among other things means they are explicitly hoping that I’ve done things close to what Neil is credibly accused of, to actual other people, just so they can have the satisfaction of seeing me “owned.” And, well. Those people can go fuck themselves.)

This has been a bad crazy week, and it’s just Wednesday, in a year that’s been pretty terrible a mere fifteen days in, and which I don’t think is going to get any better from here. Take care of yourselves out there, folks.

[Raw Shark]

Jesus. Fucking. Professional Woodworker. Christ.

[LadyTevar]

Jesus. Fucking. Professional Woodworker. Christ.

Yeah. Pretty much.

My heros are becoming villians.

And while they're cancelling "Sandman" completely, the Pratchett Estate is taking full control of Good Omens.

[Zaune]

Pterry did most of the actual work on that oine anyway, from what I've heard.

[bilateralrope]

Dark Horse Comics Drops Neil Gaiman After Sexual Assault Allegations, Cancels ‘Anansi Boys’ Comic Series

‘Coraline’ Musical Canceled After Neil Gaiman Sexual Assault Allegations

Does anyone know of any organisations that are still working with him ?

And while they're cancelling "Sandman" completely,

The showrunner of Sandman is claiming that the plan was always for 2 seasons.

[LadyTevar]

Dark Horse Comics Drops Neil Gaiman After Sexual Assault Allegations, Cancels ‘Anansi Boys’ Comic Series

‘Coraline’ Musical Canceled After Neil Gaiman Sexual Assault Allegations

Does anyone know of any organisations that are still working with him ?

Black Pheonix Alchemy Lab perfumery had a large section of oils and hair glosses based on his writing. When the accusations first came out, they emailed a warning for anyone who wanted to grab "one last bottle", then dropped every single one of them. Over 100 perfumes/hair glosses out of their catalogue.

On one hand, it's sad, because the perfumes were absolutely fantastic. I bought what I could afford at the time

[Ralin]

I've said this before, but I really don't like how we've set the precedent of work/private separation going out the window when companies do things like this to make examples of people outed for doing bad things.

Not saying it isn't justified, but unless I as teacher am keeping a blog about how awesome molesting kids is and how everyone should do it my boss should have nothing to say about what I do in my personal life. And I think other people should have that privilege too.

[Solauren]

And while they're cancelling "Sandman" completely,

The showrunner of Sandman is claiming that the plan was always for 2 seasons.

Considering they've done 20 / 74 issues of the original comic, have to cut out anything involving DC characters like Batman and Manhunter, and could easily cut out a bunch more filler, I believe it.

[Raw Shark]

I've said this before, but I really don't like how we've set the precedent of work/private separation going out the window when companies do things like this to make examples of people outed for doing bad things.

Not saying it isn't justified, but unless I as teacher am keeping a blog about how awesome molesting kids is and how everyone should do it my boss should have nothing to say about what I do in my personal life. And I think other people should have that privilege too.

Fully agree with that. It's not like that line of perfumes was guilty of sexual misconduct.

[bilateralrope]

I've said this before, but I really don't like how we've set the precedent of work/private separation going out the window when companies do things like this to make examples of people outed for doing bad things.

Not saying it isn't justified, but unless I as teacher am keeping a blog about how awesome molesting kids is and how everyone should do it my boss should have nothing to say about what I do in my personal life. And I think other people should have that privilege too.

Fully agree with that. It's not like that line of perfumes was guilty of sexual misconduct.

So what should be done instead ?

Sure, we all want criminal convictions. But those rarely happen in cases like this.

Then you have the issue that they are relying on Neil Gaiman's reputation to sell them. Try naming someone else involved in anything already mentioned in this thread, without looking it up, other than the actors.

[LadyTevar]

Then you have the issue that they are relying on Neil Gaiman's reputation to sell them. Try naming someone else involved in anything already mentioned in this thread, without looking it up, other than the actors.

They were using his name and his novels WITH HIS PERMISSION, part of the proceeds were going to Charities he'd picked out like the Comic Book Defense Fund.

As I said, they based these perfume mixtures on people places and things from his novels, so there was a long list of perfumes from American Gods, from Coraline, etc. Perfumes like "Mr. Wednesday", "Bastet", all three Zoryas, "Crowley", "Aziraphale".
I have spare bottles for when I run out, but now I'm torn between using the bottles up as fast as I can, or holding onto them as long as I can to savor them.

[Raw Shark]

I'm not a big fragrance guy (other than the honest sweat of a working man), but if they're going to stop selling it I'd probably call it a special occasion / collector thing.