After the Tortoise Media podcast released last summer, which we told you about to explain why Good Omens 3 will have only one final episode, a new journalistic investigation, this time by New York Magazine, reports several accusations of sexual harassment against Neil Gaiman, writer, cartoonist and screenwriter, creator of literary works from which TV series such as the aforementioned Good Omens and The Sandman and American Gods were based.
In an article titled “There’s no safe word”, journalist Lila Shapiro collected testimonies from eight women, including four who had already spoken to Tortoise Media. They all spoke of violent sexual conduct and abuse suffered by Gaiman.
The accusations against Neil Gaiman
Among the accusers is Scarlett Pavlovich, who was 22 when she met Gaiman’s then-wife, Amanda Palmer, in New Zealand. They became friends, and Pavlovich was hired to babysit Palmer and Gaiman’s then 5-year-old son. And upon first meeting the child, Gaiman tricked her into taking a bath in the backyard tub and sexually assaulted her.
Pavlovich was forced into anal intercourse and suffered subsequent humiliations from Gaiman, who demanded to be called “Master” and who treated her like a sex slave even though she continued to say no.
Last summer, Gaiman spokesmen argued that the sadomasochistic practices of which the women accused Gaiman “may not appeal to everyone but are legal between consenting adults.” However, according to women interviewed by New York Magazine, while there was partial acceptance of BDSM practices, Gaiman had never discussed the limits of what he could or could not do to women.
On another occasion, in Auckland, Gaiman asked Pavlovich to look at the child, while he forced her to have sexual intercourse in the room where the child was. A circumstance, this, denied by the writer’s representatives.
Pavlovich then signed a confidentiality agreement and accepted a $9,200 settlement from Gaiman, only to report him in January 2023, but police say “this case has been closed.”
Another woman who worked for Gaiman’s family, named Caroline, had an affair with Gaiman when she was living at the writer’s estate in Woodstock and separated from her husband.
Caroline recounted a time when she fell asleep while reading a book to Gaiman’s son, who entered the room and sexually approached the woman in the same bed as her son, making the woman think “there was something really wrong with him.”
Caroline also signed a confidentiality agreement with Gaiman, in December 2021, for an amount equal to $300,000. And in this case too, Gaiman’s lawyers deny what the woman said.
Also accusing Gaiman is a woman named Kendra Stout, who was 18 when she met Gaiman in 2004 at an event promoting one of his books. Three years later, she says she was raped by Gaiman during a trip, despite telling him no because of a urinary tract infection.
And then there’s Katherine Kendall, who was 22 when she met 52-year-old Gaiman in 2012. Kendall claims she was sexually abused despite saying she didn’t want to have sex with him, and was later compensated $60,000 to “make amends to the damage with psychotherapy”, as Gaiman would have said in a recorded phone call.
The immediate consequences for Gaiman
While waiting to see how the story will evolve from a legal point of view, Gaiman is already facing the consequences of these accusations, as demonstrated by the reduction of the finale of Good Omens to just one episode (without his contribution). Disny has suspended production of the film inspired by his book The Cemetery Child, and Netflix has canceled the series Dead Boy Detectives, although it is not known if there is a connection with the story.
At the moment there do not appear to be any repercussions on two other television productions inspired by Gaiman’s works, namely the second season of The Sandman, which should be released this year on Netflix, and the Anansi Boys series which should arrive on Prime Video.