A third woman has accused Neil Gaiman of behaving inappropriately towards and sexually assaulting her in an interview recorded for the Am I Broken: Survivor Stories podcast episode “Claire ‘I Ignored It and I Believed Him Because He’s the Storyteller [Neil Gaiman]’”.
(Note: the editor of File 770 has severe hearing loss and is unable to listen to podcasts, therefore this report will depend on the synopses of the Survivor Stories podcast posted by Stephanie Kay and Skyla Dawn Cameron on Bluesky.)
“Claire” says she met Gaiman at a book signing in 2012 and says Gaiman immediately kissed her. He invited her places, with VIP access; he appeared naked in Skype calls; there was unwanted phone sex and groping; culminating in a traumatic experience on his tour bus. Additional details in this Bluesky thread.
In 2019, when “Claire” was seeking help and tried to reach out to reporters, she was told there’s no story here. In 2022 she reached out to the podcast about her story but after talking to Gaiman she felt it was a one-off and decided not to go forward. But now there are other victims’ stories, she realizes her assessment was wrong, that this wasn’t a one-time situation, and someone else was hurt.
The first two women’s allegations were reported in a podcast on July 3, Master: the Allegations Against Neil Gaiman, a Tortoise Media investigation led by Rachel Johnson. One woman, called Scarlett in the podcast, worked for Neil Gaiman as a nanny, and the other called K., met him at a book signing.
In The Bookseller’s account of the accusations, “[Scarlett] alleges she was sexually assaulted by Gaiman in 2022 when she was working as a nanny to his child. She was 23 and he was in his 60s. This is also reported to be the subject of a police complaint in New Zealand. [K.], who describes herself as a ‘fan’, alleges Gaiman was ‘abusive’ and had non-consensual sex with her on one occasion, when she was 20 and Gaiman was in his 40s.” The article says Gaiman “reportedly ‘strongly denies’ the allegations, saying that he believed consent had been established. The two women making allegations were reportedly in otherwise consensual relationships with the author.”
The Bookseller also says crisis management firm Edendale Strategies – which has worked for Ezra Miller (The Flash) — is handling Gaiman’s media requests. Neil Gaiman has not posted on his X.com account since July 2.
The public’s common reluctance to believe survivors which greeted the Tortoise Media reports was compounded by skepticism about how the stories were presented by the creators of the podcast episodes. Also, there were indications that Gaiman’s statements quoted in them may have come from his PR firm and not from him. And one of the reporters, Rachel Johnson, is Boris Johnson’s sister, causing some to question the potential for bias due to Gaiman’s criticism of the Tories. Now that a third account has been shared by the Survivor Stories, what the first two women had to say is back in the foreground where it belongs.
As Markus Mäurer said on July 9 in his German-language column at Tor-Online, these revelations come as a shock, because Gaiman has long been considered an ally of marginalized groups, a prominent advocate for trans rights, feminism, and progressive causes. But these latest revelations have led Mäurer to demand, “We as fans should stop giving people a status that many consider almost sacred, so that when such misconduct occurs, it is not initially ignored, downplayed or even defended.”