In July, Tortoise Media broke the news that two women had accused Gaiman of sexual assault and published a six-part podcast, “Master,” covering the allegations from five women. However, several of the women had used only their first names or pseudonyms to protect their identities, and a major media outlet had yet to corroborate the full extent of the information, until now.
In a new New York Magazine article titled “There Is No Safe Word,” journalist Lila Shapiro spoke with eight women who had similar experiences with Gaiman, four of whom also participated in the Tortoise podcast.
The allegations against Neil Gaiman for sexual assault
One of these women, Scarlett Pavlovichwas 22 years old when he met Gaiman’s ex-wife, Amanda Palmerin New Zealand. They struck up a friendship before Palmer asked Pavlovich to help take care of his and her 5-year-old son. Pavlovich said that the first time she met Gaiman, while waiting for the boy to finish playing, he offered her a bath in a clawfoot tub in his yard. She alleges that he then joined her naked in the bathtub, asked her to sit on his lap and sexually assaulted her.
“He stuck his fingers directly into my butt and tried to stick his penis into my butt. And I said, ‘No, no.’ He then tried to rub his penis between my breasts and I also said ‘no’. “Then he asked me if he could cum on my face and I said ‘no,’ but he did it anyway,” Pavlovich told New York Mag. “He told me, ‘Call me ‘master’ and I’ll cum.’ He told me: ‘Be a good girl. “You’re a good girl.”.
Pavlovich claims this continued for the rest of the time she cared for the family’s children, including one instance in which he allegedly attempted to have anal sex with her using butter as lubricant.
“When he finished, he called her a ‘slave’ and ordered her to ‘clean him up,’” the article reports. “She protested because it was unhygienic. ‘He said, ‘Are you defying your master?’” she recalls. ‘I had to lick my own shit.’”
Gaiman’s representatives told the Tortoise podcast that “sexual degradation, bondage, domination, sadism and masochism may not be to everyone’s taste, but between consenting adults, BDSM is legal.” Although the New York Magazine article states that all of the accusers at some point had played along by calling him “master” as he wished and continuing to communicate with him, women allege that consent and specific BDSM activities had not been discussed or agreed upon before they happened.
At another time, Gaiman was staying with his son at an Auckland hotel and asked Pavlovich to keep an eye on the boy while he received a massage. She claims he then proceeded to have sex with her while her son was in the room and continued talking to him during the act. Pavlovich says he asked Gaiman, “What the hell are you doing?” and that he was in a “state of shock” during the incident.
Gaiman has strenuously denied all allegations against him since the Tortoise podcast came out, stating that all relationships were consensual. In a statement responding to Pavlovich’s allegation about the hotel room incident, his representatives called it “untrue, if not deplorable.” Gaiman’s representatives did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for further comment on the New York Magazine article.
However, Pavlovich remained in contact with Gaiman after that point, even assuring him at one point that their interactions had been consensual. Finally, he agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement and received, according to NY Mag, a total of $9,200 in nine separate payments. In January 2023, she filed a police report accusing him of sexual assault, but the “matter is now closed,” a police spokesperson told NY Mag.
Caroline, who chose to be identified only by her first name, also signed a confidentiality agreement after his experience with Gaiman. She worked as a caretaker and sometimes a nanny at Gaiman’s estate in Woodstock, New York, and the two began a physical relationship after her husband left her in December 2017.
According to NY Mag, Caroline once fell asleep reading stories to the boy in Gaiman’s bed. When he returned, “he got into bed with his son in between, then reached over the boy to grab Caroline’s hand and put it on his penis,” the NY Mag article says. Caroline says he jumped off the bed. bed. “He had no limits,” Caroline told NY Mag. “I remember thinking there was something really wrong with him.”.
In December 2021, Caroline claims that Gaiman’s business representative offered her $5,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement and move out of the property. She asked for a much larger sum ($300,000), which Gaiman agreed to. Gaiman’s representatives told NY Mag that “Caroline initiated the sexual encounters” and denied “that he had engaged in any sexual activity with her in the presence of their son.”
Another accuser is Kendra Stout, who was 18 when she met Gaiman at a book signing in Florida. Their relationship became physical about three years later, and in 2007 She alleges he raped her during a trip to the Cornish countryside after she repeatedly told him “no” because he had a serious urinary tract infection. Stout filed a police complaint in October, according to NY Mag.
Katherine Kendall, who was 22 when she met Gaiman in 2012, also spoke out and claimed that Gaiman tried to assault her on his tour bus after she told him she didn’t want to have sex with him. New York Magazine reports that years later, he gave her $60,000 for therapy to — as he put it in a recorded phone call — “make up for the damage.”
Several of Gaiman’s works were canceled
As the NY Mag article says, since the explosive Tortoise report in July, several of Gaiman’s film and television projects have been affected.
The Good Omens season 3 of Prime Video will now end with a 90-minute episode, without Gaiman being part of the production. Disney stopped production on its film adaptation of The Graveyard Book and Netflix canceled Dead Boy Detectivesalthough it is unclear whether it was related to the accusations. However, it is expected that season 2 of The Sandman will premiere this year on Netflix, in addition to the adaptation of the series Anansi Boys from Prime Video.
Source: Ambito
