Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
The former wife of Neil Gaiman has publicly acknowledged sexual assault allegations levied against the famed author this week, saying she is “profoundly disturbed.”
On Monday, New York Magazine published a lengthy report, titled There Is No Safe Word, detailing claims of sexual misconduct against Gaiman by eight women, which included inappropriate and abusive behaviour toward his fans.
Amanda Palmer, a musician who was married to the author from 2011 to 2022 and shares a son with him, released a statement Wednesday through a representative about the accusations.
“While Ms. Palmer is profoundly disturbed by the allegations that Mr. Gaiman has abused several women, at this time her primary concern is, and must remain, the well-being of her son and therefore, to guard his privacy, she has no comment on these allegations,” said a statement to British music magazine NME.
In addition, Palmer shared to Instagram that she was unable to comment at this time due to ongoing custody and divorce proceedings between the former couple.
“Please understand that I am first and foremost a parent. I ask for privacy at this time,” she wrote.
Publication of the article came after allegations surfaced against Gaiman last year during a six-episode podcast shared by Tortoise Media called Master.
The New York Magazine article opened with the story of 22-year-old drama student Scarlett Pavlovich who became friends with Palmer.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
Pavlovich said she did odd jobs for Palmer and recalled a weekend in 2022 when she was asked to babysit the couple’s child at their home. While there, she claimed Gaiman sexually assaulted her when she was soaking in an outdoor bathtub.
Gaiman is also accused of demanding sexual partners refer to him as “Master” in the bedroom for his own gratification.
The allegations have sparked outrage, most notably with author JK Rowling, who was critical of the literary community’s response.
“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,” Rowling shared to X.
Gaiman, 64, denied the accusations in a post on his personal website on Tuesday.
“As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognize and moments I don’t, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen,” he wrote. “I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.”
Gaiman said he went back and reviewed emails from women he was in contact with at the time that were reported as abusive.
“These messages read now as they did when I received them – of two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again. At the time I was in those relationships, they seemed positive and happy on both sides.”
He reiterated his denials but was prepared to take responsibility for any “missteps.”
“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,” he wrote.