Neil Gaiman breaks silence to deny claims of non-consensual sex while admitting he ‘should have done so much better’

Novelist Neil Gaiman has broken his silence to deny reports he raped and sexually assaulted a number of women, although he admitted he ‘should have done so much better’.

The 64-year-old author was first accused of sexual assault by five women in July, leading to the cancellation of the third season of Amazon’s Good Omens.

Even more women have since revealed disturbing details about their encounters with the American Gods author in a shocking report from New York Magazine.

With the women’s stories circulating online this week, Gaiman said he felt compelled to address the allegations.

“Over the past few months I have watched with horror and dismay the stories circulating about me on the Internet,” he says wrote on his website.

‘I have kept quiet until now, both out of respect for the people who shared their stories and out of the desire not to draw more attention to a lot of misinformation.

‘I’ve always tried to be a private person, and increasingly felt that social media was the wrong place to talk about important personal matters.

“I’ve reached the point now where I feel like I have to say something,” Gaiman explained.

He said he read through his accusers’ accounts of their relationship with him and discovered that “there are moments I half recognize and moments I don’t recognize, descriptions of things that happened next to things that emphatically did not happen.”

‘I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never had non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever,” Gaiman claimed.

The author also said that he even went back and read the messages he shared with the woman who accused him of sexual assault.

“These messages read now as they did when I received them – from two people who enjoy fully consensual sexual relationships and want to see each other again,” he said. “When I had those relationships, they seemed positive and happy on both sides.

“And I also realize, reading through them years later, that I could and should have done so much better,” the Coraline writer admitted.

“I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, focused on myself, and not as attentive as I could or should have been.

“I was clearly careless with people’s hearts and feelings, and that’s something I really, really regret. It was selfish of me.

‘I was trapped in my own story and ignored that of others.’

He is now trying to better himself, he said.

“For several months now, I’ve been taking a long, hard look at who I’ve been and how I’ve made people feel,” Gaiman told his readers.

“Like most of us, I’m learning and trying to do the necessary work, and I know that doesn’t happen overnight.

‘I hope that I will continue to grow with the help of good people.

“I understand that not everyone will believe me or even care about what I say, but I will do the work anyway, for myself and the people I love. I will do my utmost to earn their trust, as well as the trust of my readers.’

Yet he insisted: ‘I do not accept that there is abuse.

“Again, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual acts with anyone.”

“Some of the terrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others are so distorted from what actually happened that they bear no relation to reality,” he claimed.

“I am willing to take responsibility for any missteps I have made,” Gaiman concluded. ‘I am not willing to turn my back on the truth and I cannot accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit that I have done things I have not done.’

One of his accusers has alleged that he raped her in an outdoor pool on February 4, 2022, while she was babysitting the son he shares with ex-wife Amanda Palmer, 48.

Scarlett Pavlovich said the author encouraged her to take a bath after they finished dinner, despite her resistance.

After undressing and getting in, she claimed Gaiman was naked and participating. While in the bath, Pavlovich said he told her to stretch out.

“I said ‘no.’ I said, ‘I don’t have confidence in my body,'” Pavlovich said. ‘[Gaiman] said, “It’s okay, it’s just me. Just relax. Just have a chat.’

But Pavlovich said the situation escalated and Gaiman sexually assaulted her.

She claimed he penetrated her with his fingers before trying to do so with his penis as she told him no.

Pavlovich recalled how, as he was ejaculating, Gaiman asked if he could ejaculate on a certain part of her body – which she refused. She claims he did that anyway.

He allegedly said to her during the act: ‘Call me master. Be a good girl. You’re a good girl.’

Pavlovich said she cried and Googled “Me Too” and “Neil Gaiman” in the aftermath.

Despite what she reportedly endured, Palmer and Gaiman offered Pavlovich the opportunity to move with them to England and Scotland to continue her nanny work, which she agreed to.

In another incident, which took place at a home on the New Zealand island of Waiheke, Pavlovich said Gaiman attacked her while she was cleaning up the kitchen.

She said the author approached her from behind, pushed down her pants, started hitting her with his belt and then tried to penetrate her anally without lubrication.

After yelling no, Pavlovich said he grabbed butter from the kitchen, used it as a lubricant and penetrated her without using protection.

Pavlovich claimed that when the rape was over, he called her “slave” and ordered her to “clean him up.”

The allegations published by the magazine detail how Gaiman’s alleged horror would continue night after night, causing the evenings of abuse to “blend into one another.”

Pavlovich claimed she fainted from the pain of the sexual encounters, recalling an instance where he was so forceful that she vomited on him – before he told her to lick it up.

The abuse allegedly occurred while Gaiman’s young son was in the room, she said.

Pavolvich said at the time that she did not describe her experiences as sexual assault, but noted that Palmer did not seem surprised by the allegations and reportedly responded: ‘Fourteen people have approached me about this.’

Pavlovich filed a police report in January 2023 accusing Gaiman of sexual assault, and urged police to contact Palmer as part of their investigation.

“I told them, ‘She’s a public feminist and she knows what happened. She will want to protect me. I’m sure she will speak out,'” Pavolvich told Vulture.

But Palmer allegedly refused to speak to officers when they contacted her later that year, while Gaiman provided a written statement and the investigation was ended.

Still, it remains unclear how much Palmer, who was one half of the “punk cabaret” duet the Dresden Dolls, knew about her now-ex’s exploits, as her Instagram followers urge her to make a statement.

‘I’m still trying so hard to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m worried about you. I want you to do well as much as I want those fourteen girls.

‘However. You can’t continue to do the work you’ve done advocating for SA women and survivors without a very long, thoughtful discussion about it. NOT ON PATREON. NOT BEHIND A PAYWALL.

“I absolutely loved you and defended you to the ends of the earth, but now I’m so disappointed.”

Another commented: ‘ARE YOU complicit in this?! You have been a strength and inspiration to me and because you knew what he was like, you presented these vulnerable victims to him as gifts.

‘WE ARE F***ING DONE. I’ve said I love you over the years. I don’t love you anymore. Not even in the distance.’