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.”
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Clickity
Oh wow. I want to read the doctoral dissertation about why some men make women into objects and do things that they could easily figure could blow back on them.
Thank you for finally reporting on this story. Felt like there was three weeks of complete silence in fandom after the first allegations dropped but people are gonna need to address this.
Sorry to read about this. The one interaction I had with him was very pleasant and I have spent the last thirty years thinking he was a gentleman.
sigh
People are just awful, aren’t they. Even the ones you think ought to be better.
And of course, as water runs downhill, certain bad actors are trying to use this for their own ends. :sigh:
Paul Weimer: Sure. Would you believe Vox Day actually emailed me an MP4 file of his filksong about this — like I was going to post it! (Or even open the file, let’s be serious.)
Gadzooks. While I (a) like to believe the best of everyone, (b) really thought Gaiman was one of the good guys, and (c) deeply believe that everyone should get their day in court — I have to say, it looks really damning. I’ve been looking forward so hard to some of his upcoming tv stuff, but now… Well. I’m not sure I even can. I mean … I can read and enjoy stuff by writers who hold beliefs I totally disagree with (HPL; RAH), but this … Gah.
(FWIW, I used to be on friendly terms with MZB. Having to rethink that was painful, especially because she was dead and unable to defend herself. But, geez. The evidence is the evidence. Anyway, that may be affecting my attitude here…)
muccamuk has got a comprehensive link roundup post, being updated.
I personally am heartsick. I love Good Omens so much, and I’ve been looking forward to season 3, and now I feel like it’s just dust and ashes.
I’ve been really uncomfortable about the silence around the allegations too. I’m pleased to see your piece today – it’s so important that abusers, whoever they might be, don’t just get to lie low for a while and then come back as if nothing happened.
Tim Pratt has said Locus is working on an article about the allegations for its August edition. So that might be why they escaped Seanan McGuire’s ire.
Prior to this latest, it was really concerning, but suffered from seriously incomplete information, and Tortoise Media packaging their podcast on it into three segments of four hours each, requiring a subscription, and offering no transcript. That’s not the way to get a story lots of coverage. Add to that the fact that we didn’t have prior incidents, at least that we know about.
This is the crack in the wall. He’s done.
Re: Seanan McGuire, I believe it’s a reblog and it does mention sources other than File 770.
A.P. Howell: It doesn’t mention Locus. However, Locus Online copies a lot of news from here. Let them copy this.
This has been all over TikTok the last few weeks. It’s more grassroots and personal and less reportage, though
I found Annabelle Ross’ post Manufacturing Consent very helpful for weighing and parsing the Tortoise Media posts. That was what took me from “well, maybe” to “oh shit”.
Lis Carey: FWIW, the podcast did not require a subscription, it is free and is available on most podcast platforms (all the ones I use, anyway, can’t say for others).
There were four episodes, each much shorter in length than you might have seen claimed: 56 mins, 49 mins, 35 mins, and 42 mins.
They did not provide a transcript, which is certainly a massive failing, but they did have an article summarising everything that was widely publicised with the podcast.
I know there’s been a lot of misinformation about this podcast floated, so you’re not coming at this with bad intentions, but it’s worth double-checking any claims that seem a bit OTT (like each episode being 4 hours long, that would be novel-length by the end!).
A.P. Howell, Mike is absolutely right, Locus is like a carrion bird when it comes to scavenging news from other sites. Without here and other places it rips material off of, it would have little to, errr, report.
So them not reporting on the Gaiman news is a major failure on their part that I can only attribute to a conflict of interest that made them unwilling to publish a story as they obviously knew about it as everyone interested it in the global media market knew.
Cat Eldridge: A point of information: Locus Online generally runs a line at the bottom of posts based on news items obtained here crediting File 770 as the source.
@Tad–Thanks for clarifying that for me!
Just an FYI for those that missed it, but Rolling Stone ran a story about the earlier allegations on July 3.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neil-gaiman-denies-sexual-assault-allegations-two-women-1235053131/
tortoise media, despite being what they are, did provide platform that allowed the accusers to speak with their own voices.
kathryn tewson kindly provided transcripts of the podcasts that have the accusers’ testimony marked, so everyone can make their own mind without relying on tortoise’s editorial influence.
Yo, Mike. It’s a reblog = Seanan didn’t write that.
Your accusation that she has taken a shit on File 770 is inaccurate and needs a correction.
Mike says A point of information: Locus Online generally runs a line at the bottom of posts based on news items obtained here crediting File 770 as the source.
I know, it’s the print copy that I take exception to. Where they source news from there is not generally credited.
People keep saying “It’s a reblog.” When you reblog somebody’s post you give their opinion your platform. You make it yours. That’s the point of reblogs.
What somebody needed to tell me was that what was said about File 770 was a comment on that blog by a third party. Due to Tumblr’s many-layered graphical presentation it all looked like one piece to me. But now I have reread it in a different interface and see the author of the comment was not the person who wrote the reblogged post. So I withdraw the claim that it was by McGuire, or by the original author of the post she reblogged.
I will also point out that in muccamuk’s roundup the item is attributed to McGuire and not the original author. So that didn’t help.
I’m glad you’ve chosen to run a story now, and hope that you keep writing posts as the situation develops.
It’s very probable that more allegations will surface.
And it’s important that the stories remain visible so that people can be warned and other possible victims feel that it’s safe to disclose because they’ll be believed.
Prolonged silence only helps the accused person suppress their actions.
I said it was a reblog, assuming most people knew what that meant.
Thank you for posting about this, Mike. I see from comments here it’s news to a lot of people, and it’s good that you’re reporting on it. I hope other outlets follow your example.
I also hope that next time two victims speaking up will be enough. Given the wall of silence those women faced, we’re very lucky that Claire was brave enough to come forward.
-sigh- May have to call my comic shop and tell them to stop pulling Sandman Universe stuff for my box. 🙁
Muccamukk: Why didn’t you identify the original blogger? And use their original link instead of McGuire’s? And, yes, I do know what a reblog signifies. Did you think McGuire giving the item her platform made it more noteworthy?
Muccamukk said:
Why would you expect that? “This report comes from a source I don’t like so it must be untrue” is so fabulously effective—Gaiman’s team has had weeks of silence to work with!—fandom is sure to reuse it.
People have been talking about it. The entire reason people on various platforms have been calling out [$FanNewsVenue] is the absence of any note that this is a conversation playing out in fan spaces and the subject of a few statements from folks in the industry.
Would it have helped if I’d included a photo of me holding my Hugo Award when I made the original post and several follow-ups that Seanan reblogged on Tumblr?
@Arnie Fenner: Thank you for that link; I was sure I’d read an article back then and I think that was it.
I went to a con that weekend and people were regularly at least alluding to the accusations if not discussing them in-depth. It’s the one closest to Locus HQ but I guess none of them were there?
@Nancy Sauer
Yes, I think you’re right, unfortunately. People fanned out everywhere to question the bona fides of the Tortoise podcast instead of engaging with the substance of the accusations. And it was incredibly effective. All the stuff about paywalls and terfs dominated the conversation.
Gaiman was able to hunker down and let his fancy crisis management team (the one emoloyed by Marilyn Manson no less) to set about scrubbing the internet and elevating benign material on social media. It was working – only a few fans and a couple of brave writers were attempting to overcome the silence.
Mike: If it seems that people are criticizing File770 more than Locus for not covering this story earlier, that’s because File770 has been the more reliable source for breaking SFF news for a number of years now.
One reason it took me a while to take the allegations seriously, despite following muccamuk, was because I was waiting for something to show up on File770.
@Mike Glyer
It is very common in Tumblr culture to link to a reblog rather than the original comment. And obviously both the original post plus the fact that McGuire reblogged it are noteworthy. I am surprised you even have to ask.
Also, I’d like people to remember that this post and the comments may not be read by Gaiman, but are definitely being read by victims of sexual assault. Consider what kind of environment you want to create for them in the SFF world and on this blog. Or perhaps consider what kind of environment has been created by ignoring it for so long.
This… adds a new level of ick to Gaiman’s active support of Johnathan Ross and the way Gaiman berated fans after Ross was pushed to withdraw from being presenter at Loncon 3, ten years ago.
2 out of 2 Taras agree! reblogging (like retweeting) is a way of boosting the signal on social media.
incidentally I am also continually adding to that discussion with links to transcripts, news articles, editorials, etc. as are others on Tumblr.