Neil Gaiman responds to sexual assault allegations

Sandman writer Neil Gaiman has denied the sexual abuse allegations published by Vulture yesterday. The allegations first circulated in the July 2024 podcast series Master, painting a damning picture of the once-heralded feminist author and accusing him of sexually assaulting numerous women, with whom he allegedly pushed engaged in BDSM practices without consent, negotiation, or communications. Gaiman claims he “stayed quiet until now both out of respect for the people who were sharing their stories and out of a desire not to draw even more attention to a lot of misinformation.” However, though he claims to “half-recognize” some of the scenarios in Vulture’s report, he believes others “emphatically did not happen.”

In the post, Gaiman says he “went back to read the messages” with his accusers and believes that his correspondence read “of two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationship and wanting to see one another again.” This is something that came up in the Vulture report. Sexual abuse is not always as cut and dry as other forms of violence, with many victims not realizing they were violated until well after. “You’re not thinking in a linear or logical fashion,” Scarlett Pavlovich, one of Gaiman’s accusers, told Vulture, “but the mind is trying to process it in the ways that it can.” In the piece, a text from Pavlovich to Gaiman after the alleged assault would indicate that she was enthusiastic about a relationship with the writer. Nevertheless, Gaiman admits he “could have and should have done so much better.”

“I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been,” he writes. “I was obviously careless with people’s hearts and feelings, and that’s something that I really, deeply regret. It was selfish of me. I was caught up in my own story and I ignored other people’s.”

Gaiman reiterates that he does not “accept there was any abuse.” Even so, he promises to “do the work needed,” whether or not people believe him. “I’ll be doing the work anyway, for myself, my family, and the people I love,” Gaiman continues. “I will be doing my very best to deserve their trust, as well as the trust of my readers.”

Previously, Gaiman denied the allegations, calling them “false, not to mention deplorable.” His representatives also believe his estranged wife, Amanda Palmer, was a “major force driving this story in light of their contentious divorce.”

Read Gaiman’s statement in full on his website.