Award-winning fantasy author Neil Gaiman has been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women, one of whom claims she worked as a nanny for his children in 2022 when Gaiman allegedly initiated sex against her will with his 5-year-old son in the room.
The “Coraline” author faced similar allegations in July when five women recounted their experiences for a podcast series titled “Master.” New York Magazine reporter Lila Shapiro spoke to four of those women, as well as four others, for an article published Monday.
Shapiro noted that she combed through diary entries, text messages, emails and police correspondence to corroborate her exposé “There Is No Safe Word” — which suggests a pattern of coercion and manipulation over a period of decades.
Scarlett Pavlovich claimed she was 22 years old when she met Gaiman’s then-wife, singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer, in New Zealand in 2020. After inviting Pavlovich to various social events and befriending her, Palmer allegedly asked Pavloch to nanny her and Gaiman’s young son.
Pavlovich says she met Gaiman at their Waiheke home on Feb. 4, 2022, when he allegedly suggested she take a bath in his outdoor claw-foot tub while his son finished a playdate. Pavlovich says she did, and Gaiman joined her naked and asked her to sit on his lap.
“He put his fingers straight into my ass and tried to put his penis in my ass,” Pavlovich told Shapiro. “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.’”
HuffPost has reached out to representatives for Gaiman for comment.
Pavlovich claims the misconduct continued during her time there and only worsened; Gaiman once allegedly tried to have anal sex with her using butter as a lubricant and then called her “slave” while ordering her to “clean him up,” noting, “I had to lick my own shit.”
Pavlovich says the abuse was so regular that even Gaiman’s son began calling her “slave” and ordering her to call him “master.” She told New York Magazine that, while babysitting the boy at a hotel, Gaiman started having sex with her — as his son was in the room.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Pavlovich recalled quietly mouthing, per New York Magazine.
One woman who asked to be identified only as Caroline says she was babysitting Gaiman’s then-4-year-old son in Woodstock, New York, around 2017, when she fell asleep while reading to the boy and Gaiman got into bed, grabbed her hand and placed it on his penis.
Caroline claims his business manager offered her $5,000 in December 2021 to sign a non-disclosure agreement but that Gaiman paid her $300,000 when she demanded as much. His representatives told New York Magazine that “she had initiated the sexual encounters.”
Gaiman also denied engaging “in any sexual activity with her in the presence of his son.”
Kendra Stout was 18 years old when she met Gaiman at a Florida book signing and allegedly had sex with him in his hotel room afterward. She told New York Magazine that, on a trip to the British countryside in 2007, he raped her after she repeatedly told him “no.”
Stout filed a police report against Gaiman last October, the outlet confirmed.
Katherine Kendall was 22 when she first met Gaiman in 2012 and told New York Magazine he tried to sexually assault her in his tour bus despite her previous objections. The outlet confirmed Gaiman paid her $60,000 for therapy to “make up for the damage” years later.
The other four women previously recalled similar experiences on the podcast, some of which allegedly occurred in the 1990s, such as Gaiman demanding they call him “master” during sex.
Gaiman, whose acclaimed work earned him a cult following and was lucratively adapted into numerous award-winning films and television shows, has denied all allegations against him since the release of the “Master” podcast.
In a statement at the time, his representatives told Variety that “sexual degradation, bondage, domination, sadism and masochism may not be to everyone’s taste, but between consenting adults, BDSM is lawful.”
Pavlovich told New York Magazine that, in January 2023, after signing an NDA and receiving a total of $9,200 in nine separate payments, she filed a police report in New Zealand. When the outlet contacted the police, authorities reportedly said, “The matter has been closed.”
Palmer reportedly refused to speak with police at the time to corroborate Pavlovich’s claims. She is currently in her fifth year of a custody and divorce battle with Gaiman.
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