Multiple women have accused “The Sandman” and “Coraline” author Neil Gaiman of sexual assault in a New York Magazine cover story, speaking on the record about their experiences.
Back in July, Tortoise Media broke the news that Gaiman had been accused of sexual assault by two women and released a six-part podcast, “Master,” which covered the allegations of five women. However, several of the women had used only their first names or pseudonyms to protect their identities, and a major news organization had yet to corroborate the full extent of the reporting — until now.
In the New York Magazine piece, titled “There Is No Safe Word,” reporter Lila Shapiro spoke to eight women who had similar experiences with Gaiman, four of which also participated in Tortoise’s podcast. One of these women, Scarlett Pavlovich, was 22 when she first met Gaiman’s ex-wife, Amanda Palmer, in New Zealand. They struck up a friendship before Palmer asked Pavlovich to help babysit her and Gaiman’s 5-year-old child. Pavlovich said that the first time she met Gaiman, while waiting for the child to finish a playdate, he offered her a bath in a claw-foot tub in his garden. She alleges that he then joined her in the tub naked, asked for her to sit on his lap and sexually assaulted her.
“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,” Pavlovich told New York Mag. “He said, ‘Call me ‘master,’ and I’ll come.’ He said, ‘Be a good girl. You’re a good little girl.’”
Pavlovich claims this continued for the remainder of the time that she babysat for the family, including an instance where he allegedly attempted to have anal sex with her using butter as lubricant.
“When it was over, he called her ‘slave’ and ordered her to ‘clean him up,’” the article reports. “She protested that it wasn’t hygienic. ‘He said, “Are you defying your master?”‘ she recalls. ‘I had to lick my own shit.’”
Representatives for Gaiman told the Tortoise podcast that “sexual degradation, bondage, domination, sadism and masochism may not be to everyone’s taste, but between consenting adults, BDSM is lawful.” Though the New York Magazine article states that all of the accusers had at some point played along by calling him “master” as he desired and continuing to communicate with him, the women allege that consent and specific BDSM activities had not been discussed and agreed upon prior to them happening.
At another point, Gaiman was staying with his son at a hotel in Auckland and asked Pavlovich to watch the child as he got a massage. She alleges that he then proceeded to have sex with her while his son was in the room, and continued to talk with him during the act. Pavlovich says she asked Gaiman, “What the fuck are you doing?” and was in a “state of shock” during the incident.
Gaiman has strenuously denied all allegations against him since the Tortoise podcast came out, asserting that all relations were consensual. In a statement in response to Pavlovich’s allegation about the hotel room incident, his representatives called it “false, not to mention deplorable.” Gaiman’s reps did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for further comment on the New York Magazine piece.
However, Pavlovich remained in contact with Gaiman after that point, even reassuring him at one point that their interactions had been consensual. Eventually, she agreed to sign an NDA and was paid, according to NY Mag, a total of $9,200 in nine separate payments. In January 2023, she filed a police report accusing him of sexual assault, but the “matter has now been closed,” a police spokesperson told NY Mag.
Caroline, who opted to be identified just by her first name, also signed an NDA after her experience with Gaiman. She worked as a caretaker and sometimes babysitter on Gaiman’s property in Woodstock, N.Y., and the two began a physical relationship after her husband left her in December 2017.
According to NY Mag, Caroline once fell asleep reading stories to the child in Gaiman’s bed. When he returned, he “got into bed with his son in the middle, then reached across the child to grab Caroline’s hand and put it on his penis,” the NY Mag story reads. Caroline says she jumped out of the bed. “He didn’t have boundaries,” Caroline told NY Mag. “I remember thinking that there was something really wrong with him.”
In December 2021, Caroline claims Gaiman’s business manager offered her $5,000 to sign an NDA and move off the property. She asked for a much higher sum — $300,000 — to which Gaiman agreed. His representatives told NY Mag that “Caroline initiated the sexual encounters” and denied “that he engaged in any sexual activity with her in the presence of his son.”
Another accuser is Kendra Stout, who was 18 years old when she first met Gaiman at a book signing in Florida. Their relationship turned physical around three years later, and in 2007 she alleges he raped her during a trip to the Cornish countryside after she repeatedly told him “no” due to having a bad UTI. Stout filed a police report in October, according to NY Mag.
Katherine Kendall, who was 22 when she first met Gaiman in 2012, also spoke out, alleging that Gaiman attempted to assault her in his tour bus after she had told him she didn’t want to have sex with him. New York Magazine reports that years later, he gave her $60,000 for therapy to — as he put it in a recorded phone call — “make up for the damage.”
As the NY Mag article states, since Tortoise’s bombshell report in July, several of Gaiman’s film and TV projects have been affected. Season 3 of Prime Video’s “Good Omens” will now end with one 90-minute episode, with Gaiman not part of the production. Disney paused production on its film adaptation of “The Graveyard Book” and Netflix canceled “Dead Boy Detectives,” though it’s unclear if it was related to the allegations. However, “The Sandman” Season 2 is still expected to release this year on Netflix, in addition to Prime Video’s “Anansi Boys” series adaptation (Netflix and Prime Video did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment on the status of these shows).
