Neil Gaiman denies having non-consensual sex as more accusers come forward

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Best-selling British author Neil Gaiman issued a statement Wednesday denying having non-consensual sex after a magazine this week published allegations from several women, accusing him of sexual assault .

The 64-year-old author of “The Sandman” comic book series and the novel “American Gods” was responding to a New York Magazine article that detailed allegations of assault, abuse and coercion made by eight women. The allegations of four of them were aired in July in a Tortoise Media podcast.

Gaiman said he had seen stories about him circulating on the Internet for months with “horror and dismay.”

“As I read this latest collection of stories, there are moments I half-recognize and others I don’t, descriptions of things that happened alongside things that definitely didn’t happen. I’m far from a perfect person, but I’ve never had non-consensual sex with anyone. Never,” Gaiman posted on the social media platform Tumblr.

Gaiman said he reread the message exchanges he had with his accusers. They still read as “two people enjoying fully consensual sex and wanting to see each other again,” he said.

“And I also realize, looking through them, years later, that I could and should have done much better. I was emotionally unavailable while sexually available, focused on myself, and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been. I was obviously careless with people’s hearts and feelings, and that’s something I really deeply regret,” Gaiman said.

Most of the allegations relate to times when Gaiman was in his 40s or older and living in the United States, Britain and New Zealand.

One of the accusers, Scarlett Pavlovich, told New York Magazine that she met Gaiman through his then-wife, American artist Amanda Palmer, on a New Zealand island where the couple was living with their son in 2022. Pavlovich alleges that Gaiman repeatedly abused her. the night they met.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they publicly identify themselves.

Some of Pavlovich’s allegations were first made public six months earlier on the podcast. She told the magazine that she filed a police report in January 2023, accusing Gaiman of sexual assault.

New Zealand police did not say this week whether Gaiman was or had been under investigation.

“Police generally cannot respond to requests to establish whether specific individuals are or have been the subject of a police investigation. Additionally, anyone who makes a complaint to the police has the right to privacy,” New Zealand police told AP in an email on Tuesday.

Messages from the AP to Gaiman’s agent, his office and Bloomsbury, publisher of several of his recent books, were not returned.

Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, which both have Gaiman-related projects planned for this year, did not respond to messages from the AP.

Several of Gaiman’s works have been made into films and television programs.