Neil Gaiman controversy explained: All allegations against The Sandman creator
NetflixThe Neil Gaiman controversy took a turn this week amid the news that Disney has paused its Graveyard Book movie adaptation, following a series of allegations against the famed author.
There’s no denying Gaiman’s impact on the world of modern literature and entertainment. Specializing in fantasy, his work spans novels, short stories, comics, and screenplays, and last year he was named in Time’s 100 most influential people of 2023.
In addition to his literary achievements, Gaiman’s work has been widely adapted for the screen, with titles such as American Gods, The Sandman, Good Omens, Coraline, and Lucifer further broadening his reach.
However, the writer’s career has been overshadowed by serious allegations of sexual misconduct in recent months. Below, you can find a breakdown of everything that’s happened so far. Warning: some may find this content distressing.
The first allegations emerge
The allegations were first published by Tortoise’s four-part podcast series, Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman, on July 3, 2024, in which two women who were in consensual relationships with the writer accuse him of sexual assault.
NetflixOne of the accusers is Scarlett, now 23, with the report stating she “alleges that Gaiman sexually assaulted her within hours of their first meeting in February 2022 in a bath at his New Zealand residence where she worked as a nanny to his child.”
Within an otherwise consensual relationship, Scarlett alleged the 63-year-old author “engaged in rough and degrading penetrative sexual acts with her.”
Tortoise said it had seen messages and notes from the time and received testimony from Scarlett’s friends, all of which supported her allegations.
The second accuser, who goes by K, said she was 18 when she met Gaiman at a book signing in Florida in 2003, before embarking on a relationship with him when she was 20 and he was in his mid-40s.
She claimed she submitted to rough and painful sex that “she neither wanted nor enjoyed,” and that in one incident, Gaiman penetrated her “despite her asking him not to as she was suffering from a painful infection,” the outlet wrote.
Three more women come forward
At the start of August, three more women came forward with allegations against Gaiman, the first two sharing their stories in a fifth episode of Tortoise’s podcast.
One of those is Caroline Wallner, a divorced mother of three who lived and worked at Gaiman’s Woodstock, New York property from 2014 to 2021.
Prime VideoShe claimed the writer coerced her into having sex with him in exchange for allowing her and her daughters to remain at the property, where they had been living.
“There were little hints of, ‘We’re going to need the house.’ And I remember saying, ‘Let’s talk about it. Let’s figure it out,’” she told Tortoise.
“That’s when he would just come to my studio and make me give him a blowjob. And he can say it was consensual. But why would I do that? It was because I was scared of losing my place.”
During the sexual encounters, Wallner claimed Gaiman told her to call him her “master” and would sometimes “choke” her. She went on to accuse him of continuing to send explicit images and requesting them in return after he left the property.
As per Tortoise’s report, “After Wallner stopped answering Gaiman’s sexual video calls, in June 2021, she said his business manager told her to vacate the property by December that year.”
Although Gaiman’s business manager allegedly offered Wallner $5,000 as compensation for leaving the property, she was treated for depression and post-traumatic stress during this time period, saying, “Therapy alone is costing a fortune.”
Eventually, Gaiman is said to have had Wallner sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), which was settled for $275,000. Despite the NDA, she felt compelled to come forward after hearing of the other claims against the writer.
The second, Julia Hobsbawm OBE, said that in 1985, when she was a 22-year-old book publicist living in London, Gaiman, then 25, came back to her flat.
“I literally have no memory of how he came to be back there. What I’m totally certain about is that romance was not on the cards, not for me,” she said. “And I did not believe it was on the cards for him.”
According to her account, Gaiman “jumped” on her “out of the blue” in an “aggressive, unwanted pass,” forcing his tongue into her mouth and pushing her on the sofa before she wriggled free.
Following this, Hobsbawm said she cut off contact with Gaiman, but that the incident plagues her to this day.
After Tortoise’s series came out, a fifth woman, who used the pseudonym Claire, came forward and gave consent for her story to be shared on the Am I Broken: Survivor Stories podcast. Her allegations were also featured on a sixth additional episode of Tortoise’s Master series.
Claire met Gaiman in 2012 when she was 22 during a book signing, recalling how she was an admirer of his work. She claimed that what followed were numerous advances, with Gaiman allegedly inviting her to various events and initiating phone sex.
She recalled one incident following an afterparty where there wasn’t enough room in the car back to their hotel, and so she sat on Gaiman’s lap. During this incident, he allegedly tried to feel up her dress, and later kissed her against the wall.
Claire admitted to kissing him back because “it was Neil Gaiman,” describing the influence he had over her.
Tortoise reported another incident in 2013, whereby Gaiman allegedly invited Claire to a room at the back of his tour bus, where he “got on top of her and started kissing her and groping her under her dress and over her breasts.”
Since then, Claire and Gaiman have had two phone calls after she wrote him a letter about her trauma from the encounter. The outlet stated it had listened to a recording of the calls, in which the author admitted he “f**ked up” and offered to pay Claire $60,000 for therapy costs.
Gaiman denies the allegations
Gaiman has strongly denied any allegations of non-consensual sex with the women, providing differing accounts of their encounters.
According to Tortoise, Gaiman said he and Scarlett only “cuddled” and “made out” in the bath, claiming he had established consent. “His position is that, over the three-week sexual relationship that followed, they only ever engaged in consensual digital penetration,” read the report.
Wikimedia CommonsHe also suggested that when they dated, Scarlett had a condition associated with false memories, although this is not supported by her medical history.
Gaiman expressed to the outlet that he was “disturbed” by K’s allegations, denying any unlawful behavior, and suggested they are “motivated by her regret over their relationship.”
While Scarlett filed a complaint to New Zealand police in October 2022, Gaiman told Tortoise that the authorities didn’t take up his offer of assistance, suggesting it reflected a lack of substance to the allegations.
The author also denied the claims made by Wallner and Hobsbawm. Regarding Claire’s accusations, he said he attempted to initiate a kiss with her on the tour bus but he stopped when it became clear she didn’t want to.
Has any legal action taken place?
Although it’s been reported that the New Zealand police didn’t go forward with Scarlett’s complaint due to “insufficient evidence,” officials did tell Tortoise that there is an ongoing investigation.
New Zealand police said it had made a “number of attempts to speak to key people as part of this investigation and those efforts remain ongoing”, and there are “a number of factors to take into consideration with this case, including location of all parties”.
Disney pauses The Graveyard Book adaptation
On September 5, it was announced that Disney has paused its movie adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book amid the allegations against the author.
AmazonInsiders told IndieWire that the new movie, from director Marc Forster, hasn’t been scrapped entirely, but that it has been put on hold due to numerous factors, including the accusations.
Prior to this, Netflix axed its Dead Boy Detectives series – based on the DC Comics characters of the same name by Gaiman and Matt Wagner – after just one season. However, it’s not believed this was due to the controversy.
As stated by AV Club, “We’re not saying that Netflix would have kept the show alive in world where Gaiman didn’t have these allegations hanging over his head – the streamer is notoriously data-driven in a profoundly unsympathetic way when it comes to wielding the axe – but we can’t help thinking it probably didn’t help.”
It’s currently unclear whether any further projects based on Gaiman’s works will face delays or cancellations moving forward, and the case is still developing.
You can also read about Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp’s controversies, as well as why TJ Miller wasn’t in Deadpool & Wolverine.