More women have come forward with sexual assault allegations against author Neil Gaiman, including a woman who worked as a babysitter for him.
But according to Pavlovich, Gaiman attacked her on multiple occasions.
Gaiman allegedly put his arm around them both, then grabbed Pavlovich’s breasts under her shirt.
In a different text exchange between Pavlovich and Gaiman, Gaiman mentioned Anaru’s texts, which Palmer had allegedly told him about.
Pavlovich filed her own police report against Gaiman in New Zealand in January 2023, accusing him of sexual assault.
A woman who was Neil Gaiman’s babysitter is among the other women who have come forward to accuse him of sexual assault. Gaiman’s life, marriage, and breakup with Amanda Palmer, as well as the assault and abuse claims that initially surfaced against the author last year, are all extensively covered in the New York Magazine article that was released early this morning.
Despite focusing mostly on allegations made by the former nanny, Scarlett Pavlovich, the story featured statements from eight of Gaiman’s accusers, including four who had previously discussed their allegations on the 2024 podcast series Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman. The emails and texts exchanged between the women and their friends, as well as those between Gaiman and the women, were also examined by New York Magazine.
Gaiman refuted a number of specific allegations through attorneys, but he did not speak for the article. Gaiman has also refuted the earlier accusations made against him, asserting that all of his relationships have been amicable. Palmer didn’t speak for the article either, but a few of her friends did. When Rolling Stone asked Gaiman’s representatives for comment, they did not immediately reply.
Having become friends with Palmer in June 2020, Pavlovich began working as a nanny for Gaiman and Palmer in New Zealand in February 2022 (the couple later divorced). She claims that Gaiman repeatedly sexually assaulted, raped, and dehumanized her, including once in a tiny hotel room where Gaiman and Palmer’s son was present and using an iPad.
According to Pavlovich, the first day she babysat was the date of the first reported attack. As per Pavlovich, Gaiman offered her the opportunity to take a bath in the garden’s clawfoot tub while Palmer’s son was away on a playdate for the majority of the day. She complied, but was taken aback when Gaiman returned nude, allegedly joined her in the tub, and asked Pavlovich to sit on her lap.
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Pavlovich told New York, “The next part is really amorphous.”. However, I can attest that he attempted to insert his penis in my ass and stuck his fingers right into it. I replied, “No, no.”. I also said “no” when he attempted to rub his penis between my breasts. I told him no when he asked to come on my face, but he still did it. Call me “master,” and I’ll come, he said. “Be a good girl,” he said. You’re a good young lady. ‘”.
Palmer asked Pavlovich shortly after whether she would consider staying at the house for the foreseeable future, in addition to asking if she would babysit again, according to texts that New York examined. Pavlovich, who was impoverished and had previously experienced homelessness, agreed.
She also acknowledged that she was perplexed after the attack, stating, “The mind is attempting to process it in the ways that it can, but you’re not thinking in a linear or logical fashion.”. “.”.
“I am consumed by thoughts of you, the things you will do to me,” Pavlovich texted Gaiman after agreeing to Palmer’s offer. I am extremely hungry. I’ve become such a horrible creature because of you. “”.
Palmer’s friends claimed that Palmer “still had some faith in [Gaiman’s] decency” during their divorce, according to the magazine. One friend, who is not identified in the story, even cautioned Gaiman against spending time with Pavlovich, saying, “I remember specifically her saying, ‘You could really hurt this person and break her; keep your hands off of her.'”.
But Gaiman assaulted her several times, according to Pavlovich. She says Gaiman forced her to have oral sex with him while his penis was covered in urine, and that he once shoved it into her mouth so hard that Pavlovich puked. Then, Gaiman allegedly instructed her to lick the vomit off the couch and his lap.
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She also claimed that Gaiman had raped her anally without lubricant at first, then with butter as a lubricant, after beating her with his belt. After that, Gaiman allegedly referred to Pavlovich as a “slave” and instructed her to “clean him up.”. When Pavlovich initially refused, she says Gaiman said, “Are you disobeying your master?” Pavlovich then claimed she “had to lick my own shit.”. “”.
Other women have also reported that Gaiman instructed them to refer to him as “master.” Pavlovich even asserts that Gaiman and Palmer’s son started insisting that she refer to him as “master” after she had been a babysitter for a week. It is said that Gaiman once said to his child, “Now, now, Scarlett isn’t a slave.”. You shouldn’t. “”.
However, Pavlovich claimed that Gaiman appeared to have no boundaries with his son. One time, she said, she sat with Gaiman and the boy while they watched a television program. It has been reported that Gaiman wrapped his arm around both of them before grabbing Pavlovich’s breasts beneath her shirt.
According to reports, the hotel incident happened in February. 19. 2022. According to the story, Gaiman occasionally treated his son to a night at a hotel. This time, according to Pavlovich, he asked her to watch him while he received a massage. Gaiman allegedly pulled Pavlovich onto the room’s only double bed, covered it with the covers, and started having sex with her while talking to his son later that evening while the boy was playing on his iPad. “What the fuck are you doing?” she mouthed to Gaiman, according to Pavlovich. She remembers him saying to his son, “You really need to stop using the iPad.”. “”.
Then, according to Pavlovich, Gaiman went to the restroom, peed on his hand, came back to the bed, and instructed Pavlovich to “lick it off.”. According to reports, Gaiman then went back to the bathroom, nude from the waist down, and, with the door still open, forced Pavlovich to have oral sex before she could leave.
The claims were refuted by Gaiman’s attorneys, who described them as “false, not to mention, deplorable.”. “”.
Pavlovich claimed that although she did not at the time characterize these alleged incidents as sexual assault, she eventually told Palmer about some of them, including the ones that occurred in the hotel room and the bathtub. Palmer called Gaiman that evening to inquire about the purported hotel-room incident and whether their son had been wearing headphones, according to musician Lance Horne, one of Palmer’s friends. Gaiman said “no,” then hung up, according to Horne.
“Amanda tells me that you are having a rough time and you are really upset with me about what we did,” Pavlovich shared a text message she later received from Gaiman. This makes me feel terrible. “Hey, would you like to talk about it? Is there anything I can do to make anything better?” Pavlovich replied the next day, expressing her hope that she would be able to resolve the issue. We’ll talk soon. I hope all is well with you. “.”.
Pavlovich also discussed Gaiman with Misha Anaru, a friend. Despite Pavlovich’s refusal to use the term “sexual assault” or even the word “rape,” Anaru and her partner, Kris Taylor, a psychologist who had given lectures on coercion, consent, and rape, stated that they thought Gaiman had raped Pavlovich. Anaru posted texts between herself and Palmer in which she claimed that “most of my anger is directed at Neil,” but she also expressed her disappointment at Palmer for placing Pavlovich in that predicament. “Have you not anticipated this?” Anaru wrote.
Gaiman referred to Anaru’s texts, which Palmer had supposedly informed him about, in another text exchange between Pavlovich and Gaiman. “Amanda seems to have bought it hook line and sinker, and I’m a monster in it,” Gaiman wrote. In addition, he expressed regret for “causing Pavlovich any distress,” saying, “I believed that we were a positive and highly consensual thing in fact.”. “”.
At the time, according to Pavlovich, she felt “disconnected from everybody else” and was concerned about upsetting Gaiman. In response, she texted him, “It was consensual (and wonderful!)” and said that Anaru had been “triggered by something I think.”. “.”.
Like other accusations made against Gaiman, Pavlovich’s frequently include BDSM-related behaviors (bondage, dominance, sadism, and masochism). Although some of Gaiman’s accusers acknowledge that they occasionally supported him, they also assert that he regularly went beyond the essential parameters set forth by BDSM: that every action must have the consent of all parties.
The story’s two female interviewees, who had never met, each likened Gaiman to an anglerfish that uses a bioluminescent lightbulb to entice its prey: “Instead of a light,” one woman said, “he would dangle a floppy-haired, soft-spoken British guy.”. “”.
Kendra Stout, another woman who spoke for the story, claims that she first met Gaiman in 2003 when she was eighteen years old. Stout stated, “He talked at length about the dominant and submissive relationship he wanted out of me,” but he denied ever asking her what she wanted or setting any of the “safe words,” “aftercare,” or “limits” that are common in BDSM negotiations. According to Stout, Gaiman once pierced her with his finger and penis while she was suffering from a painful UTI. She told him, “No.”. In October of last year, she reported Gaiman to the authorities. When Rolling Stone asked Gaiman for comment, he did not immediately respond. ).
In January 2023, in New Zealand, Pavlovich accused Gaiman of sexual assault and filed her own police report against him. According to a spokesperson, the “matter has been closed.”. “”.