It’s been seven months since the news first broke about sexual assault allegations against The Sandman and Good Omens writer Neil Gaiman. During that time period, Gaiman has largely disappeared from public view, stepping away from his prolific, heavily trafficked social media channels on Twitter, Tumblr, and his own blog, and turning down requests for interviews. But on Monday, an in-depth New York magazine cover story about the allegations, “There Is No Safe Word,” caused a stir on social media with fuller accounts of participants’ stories and additional confirmation of graphic details.
In response to New York magazine’s story, Gaiman updated his blog on Tuesday for the first time since June 2024 to respond to the allegations:
Over the past many months, I have watched the stories circulating the internet about me with horror and dismay. I’ve stayed quiet until now, both out of respect for the people who were sharing their stories and out of a desire not to draw even more attention to a lot of misinformation. I’ve always tried to be a private person, and felt increasingly that social media was the wrong place to talk about important personal matters. I’ve now reached the point where I feel that I should say something.
Allegations of violent, coercive, degrading, and nonconsensual sexual behavior involving the author began to emerge in July and August 2024, when Tortoise Media rolled out a four-and-a-half-hour series of audio interviews titled Master: the Allegations against Neil Gaiman. Those podcasts recounted the stories of five women who accused Gaiman of behavior ranging from unwanted touching to physically abusive behavior to rape. More details came to light through interviews in The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Representatives for Gaiman denied the allegations, but Gaiman himself disappeared from public view without a statement.
In his blog post, which does not name the New York magazine piece but is clearly responding to its content, Gaiman directly denies the stories: “I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.” In language familiar from other cases of sexual misconduct from other celebrity figures, he writes about “taking a long, hard look at who I have been and how I have made people feel” and “trying to do the work needed […] I’ll continue to grow.”
He also admits to being “emotionally unavailable while being sexually available,” couching his role in the relationships as “careless with people’s hearts and feelings […] something that I really, deeply regret. It was selfish of me. I was caught up in my own story and I ignored other people’s.”
At the same time, he broadly states that the accusations are false or that their context has been misunderstood: “I don’t accept there was any abuse,” he writes. “To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.” He goes on to say:
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. I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. I’m not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can’t accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn’t do.
Since the accusations first surfaced, Gaiman has exited the production of the TV series Good Omens, an adaptation and expansion of his 1990 fantasy novel written with Terry Pratchett. A planned Disney adaptation of his 2008 novel The Graveyard Book has also been paused. Other Gaiman productions remain underway, including a second season of Netflix’s TV adaptation The Sandman, planned for release some time in 2025.
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