Neil Gaiman, author of “The Sandman” and “Good Omens,” issued a lengthy statement Monday denying the sexual misconduct accusations first made against him nearly two years ago.
It’s been about a year since Mr. Gaiman spoke out about the accusations against him, during which time he has been removed from the public eye and removed from a series of TV and film projects based on his work, including Amazon’s final season of Good Omens, the streamer’s new Anansi Boys TV series, last year’s press for the final season of Netflix’s Sandman, and the halting of development on The Graveyard Book. Movies at Disney.
In a new statement, Gaiman said a “smear campaign” had been waged against him, during which “actual evidence was dismissed or ignored.”
In March 2025, the “Sandman” author publicly reacted to accusations by his former babysitter, calling her a “fantasist” and composing a WhatsApp message refuting her sexual abuse claims.
Gaiman and his estranged wife, Amanda Palmer, were sued in federal court in February 2025 on charges of sexual assault and human trafficking. Plaintiff Scarlett Pavlovich previously raised the allegations in a Tortoise Media podcast and in a Summer 2024 New York Magazine feature.
In a court statement, Gaiman said he took a bath with Pavlovich and had consensual sex with him, but that there was no sexual intercourse. He denied the vile rape and abuse allegations raised in the lawsuit.
“None of Pavlovich’s claims are true,” he wrote. “She is a fantasist who made up stories of abuse against me and Mr. Palmer.”
Mr Gaiman also said he had produced a number of messages between himself and Mr Pavlovic that showed the encounter in New Zealand was consensual.
In addition to Pavlovic, several other women have also made accusations in Tortoise Media podcasts and New York Magazine articles. In response, Gaiman wrote on her blog in January 2025 that she had never engaged in nonconsensual sex, but that she regretted not being “emotionally available” and “inadvertent to other people’s hearts and feelings.”
Towards the end of Monday’s statement, Gaiman revealed that he is working on a new book: “It’s been a strange, tumultuous, and sometimes nightmarish year and a half, but I followed my own advice (make good art in difficult times) and when I finished making television, I returned to something I love much more: writing. When I started, I thought it would be a fairly short project, but it’s shaping up to be my biggest.” It’s been a lot longer since American Gods than Lane Ends the Ocean, and I’ve barely finished wiping my boots and hanging up my coat, but I’ve been a full-time dad for half of every month, and that’s still the best part of my life. ”
Read Gaiman’s new statement in full below.
“It’s been a while since I’ve posted anywhere, but I didn’t want to let any more time go by without thanking everyone for your kind messages of support over the past year and a half. I’ve learned firsthand how effective smear campaigns can be. Let me be clear: The accusations against me are completely and simply false. I want to address them head-on. There are emails, text messages, and video evidence to deny that these allegations, especially the really despicable ones, are being spread and amplified.” Written by people who seem more interested in outrage and clicking headlines than whether things actually happened (they didn’t).
One of the things that keeps me going through this madness is the belief that the truth will eventually come out. When this allegation was first raised, I was hopeful that there would be journalism and that it would take the (mountains of) evidence into account, but I was surprised to see how much of the reporting was just an echo chamber and how the actual evidence was dismissed or ignored.
I used to be a journalist and I have a lot of respect for journalists. That’s why I was so encouraged by the meticulous fact- and evidence-based investigative writing of a journalist who writes under the name TechnoPathology. Several of you have recently caught my attention.
There has been no contact with TechnoPathology. But I would like to personally thank them for actually looking at the evidence and reporting what they found. No one else has done this. If you are interested in what they have revealed so far, the links in this post will take you to a very good research report.
It’s been a strange, tumultuous, and sometimes nightmarish year and a half, but I followed my own advice (make good art in difficult times) and once TV production was over, I returned to something I love more: writing. I thought it was going to be a pretty short project when I started, but it looks like it’s going to be my biggest project since American Gods. It’s already been a lot longer than The Sea at the End of the Lane, and I’ve barely finished wiping my boots and hanging up my coat. And I spend half of every month being a full-time father, and it continues to be the best time of my life.
These are difficult times for the world. I am concerned when I see what is happening at home and abroad. And I’m still convinced that there are many types of people who are better than others. I would like to once again thank everyone who believed in my innocence and supported my work. It meant the world to me.
Neil”
