Acclaimed British author Neil Gaiman is again under scrutiny after eight women, including four who had previously spoken out, gave new and more details about his alleged sexual misconduct in an article published in the ‘New York’ magazine’s ‘Vulture’ section. The accounts expand on the accusations made in last year’s podcast series ‘Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman.’
Scarlett Pavlovich, a former nanny of Gaiman and his former wife Amanda Palmer’s child, is one of the key accusers. She has alleged that Gaiman encouraged her to take bath in their garden bathtub before joining her in the tub naked. She also claimed that he asked her to sit on his lap and call him “master” and when she refused his advances, he sexually assaulted her.
Pavlovich, however, continued to babysit and faced more alleged incidents. Pavlovich said she had confided in his ex-wife and also filed a police report but the case didn’t go forward. She claims she later signed an NDA regarding the alleged sexual assault. Gaiman paid her a total of $9,200 over nine months.
The report said that most of the women he allegedly abused were in their 20s, with the youngest being 18. Gaiman, at the that time was in his 40s.
While all of the accusers said that they had at some point played along with Gaiman by calling him “master”, consent and specific BDSM activities, which they say took place, had not been discussed and agreed upon.
When contacted by the US publication, Gaiman’s representatives refuted the allegations, saying they were all consensual encounters.
In the wake of the allegations, author J K Rowling took to social media to condemn literary world’s silence. “The literary crowd that had a hell of a lot to say about Harvey Weinstein before he was convicted has been strangely muted in its response to multiple accusations against Neil Gaiman from young women who’d never met, yet – as with Weinstein – tell remarkably similar stories,” the Harry Potter writer posted on the social media platform X.
Gaiman has won numerous awards and his works include comic book series ‘The Sandman’ and novels ‘Good Omens’ and ‘Coraline’.
