Neil Gaiman responds to sexual assault allegations (original) (raw)

Best-selling fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, in a new statement posted to his website Tuesday, has denied allegations of sexual assault and misconduct made against him by multiple women.

“I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever,” he said in the blog post.

Gaiman’s denial comes one day after New York Magazine published a cover story that included interviews with multiple women who accused the author of sexual assault.

The story, written by Lila Shapiro, centered on the accounts of four women, including a former nanny who said that Gaiman assaulted her at his home in New Zealand in 2022. Another woman, who had been working as a caretaker on Gaiman’s property in Woodstock, New York, alleged that starting in 2017, Gaiman pressured her for sex in exchange for letting her and her family stay on the property. She also alleged that on one occasion when she was babysitting Gaiman’s son, Gaiman tried to initiate sex while the child was in bed between them.

Gaiman denied the allegations Tuesday. “As I reflect on my past — and as I re-review everything that actually happened as opposed to what is being alleged — I don’t accept there was any abuse,” he said. “To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.

“Some of the horrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality. I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. I’m not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can’t accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn’t do.”

Several of the women identified in the New York Magazine story had come forward with their allegations last year, speaking to Tortoise Media for a six-episode podcast series released in July and August. A fifth woman was also interviewed for the podcast, about an incident of unwanted kissing that she alleged took place in 1986.On the podcast, journalists Paul Caruana Galizia and Rachel Johnson said that while Gaiman had declined to be interviewed, he denied any nonconsensual contact.

Gaiman, 64, is one of the best-known fantasy authors of his generation. Following the breakout success of his comics series “The Sandman” in the 1990s, he wrote a number of best-selling novels, including “American Gods,” along with more than a dozen children’s books; many of his works, including “Coraline” and “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” have been adapted for the stage and screen.

Since the allegations surfaced last summer, several of Gaiman’s public events have been canceled, including a planned appearance at Wolf Trap, in Vienna, Virginia, on July 20, and a Zoom talk with a group of Illinois libraries on Sept. 17.

In the fall, the New York Times reported the suspension of several movie and television productions based on Gaiman’s books, including “The Graveyard Book” at Disney. A plannedthird season of “Good Omens” at Amazon’s Prime Video, based on a novel Gaiman co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, is being cut down to a single 90-minute episode. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Though Gaiman contributed to the writing of that concluding “Good Omens” episode, he would not be involved in the production, due to begin in early 2025, Prime Video said in October.

Members of the literary world on social media have reacted to the allegations since the New York article was published Monday morning. “I hate every single possible thing about this, and I’m heartbroken about all of it,” wrote John Scalzi, a multi-time Hugo Award-winning science fiction author, on Bluesky. “We’re friends and have been for some time. All this has been a set of punches to the gut.”

Scott McCloud, a cartoonist and comics historian, said the accusations against Gaiman were “painful” for him and his family, who have “known Neil Gaiman for decades.”

“We’ve heard from women who saw Neil Gaiman at his worst and I believe them,” he wrote in a statement posted to Bluesky. “I can still find traces of the person I knew. But ultimately, this is no longer his story to tell. It belongs to the women now; to Scarlett, Caroline, and the rest. And how they want this story to end should matter most.”