The Side of Neil Gaiman His Fans Never Saw – New York Media Press Room

Photo: Guerin Blask

In the latest issue of New York Magazine, features author Lila Shapiro taking an in-depth look at sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman, the acclaimed British fan and author whose work has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been widely adapted for film and television, beginning with Coraline in 2009. In reporting the cover story “There is no safe word“Shapiro spoke with eight women who shared allegations of abuse, coercion or abuse by Gaiman, including Scarlett Pavlovich, who worked as a nanny for Gaiman and his second wife Amanda Palmer. Gaiman says through his representatives that these were all consensual encounters. Here Pavlovich tells his own full story, in disturbing detail, for the first time.

Allegations against Gaiman first came to light last summer in the podcast Master from Tortoise Media. Shapiro says the contrast between Gaiman’s public persona and the allegations caught her attention, and she sensed there was even more to the story to tell. She has followed Gaiman’s career and work since she was a teenager; she previously wrote one Meeting with Gaiman and Palmer at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade in 2018. “Gaiman has for decades described himself as a feminist writer. He is someone who spoke specifically to women, who women felt seen by, and who women felt safe with. So I knew right away that there was this dissonance between who he says he is and these stories,” says Shapiro. Gaiman had a reputation as not only one of the greatest modern comics writers, but one of the first to attract a large female readership.

Many of the allegations against Gaiman involve dominant violence, a hallmark of BDSM, “a culture with a set of long-standing norms, the most important of which is that all parties must eagerly and clearly consent to the overall dynamic as well as to each act before they engages in it,” as Shapiro writes. She says that seven of the eight women she spoke with told her they were not interested in BDSM, even though they played along at some point. “The defining feature of BDSM is consent, and there is actually more emphasis on consent than outside of BDSM. If only one party consents, then it’s not BDSM, it’s abuse,” says Shapiro.

In January 2023, Pavlovich filed a police report alleging sexual assault against Gaiman while she was working as a nanny, though “the case has been closed” according to a spokesperson. His career has been marginally affected, though he has new series and seasons set to premiere on Amazon Prime and Netflix this year. A nasty divorce and custody battle with Palmer is entering its fifth year. The piece also explores the breakdown of Gaiman and Palmer’s marriage during the same period that many of the alleged abuses took place, as well as what Palmer knew about the nature of his relationship outside of their marriage.

Elsewhere in the issue, Kerry Howley writes a first-person account of the Los Angeles wildfires, Allison P. Davis looks at the start-up that believes it can “eradicate loneliness” and Lauren Smiley explores what made a mother relentlessly cyberbullying her teenage daughter.