Female Author Sues Renowned Writer Neil Gaiman over Alleged Misconduct

A woman has filed civil lawsuits against Neil Gaiman and his ex-wife in the US, accusing the British author of sexually assaulting her. The complaints were lodged in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New York.

The lawsuit alleges that both Gaiman and Amanda Palmer violated federal human trafficking laws with various offenses including assault, battery, inflicting emotional distress against Gaiman himself and negligence on part of his ex-wife. She is seeking a minimum compensation of $7 million (5.6 million) for her losses.

Gaiman, 64, whose books “Good Omens,” “American Gods,” and “The Sandman” have been adapted into television series, has vehemently denied any allegations of sexual misconduct made by eight women previously. He insists that he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone at all.

The lawsuits claim the woman was befriended by Palmer when she was 22 and homeless in New Zealand. This is where she began working for them, which also marked the onset of her alleged assaults. The lawsuit mentions that Palmer had revealed to her there were previous complaints from over a dozen different women against Gaiman.

Five women have come forward with allegations about the writer in Tortoise Media’s podcast series published in summer 2024. Four out of these five are among those eight featured in an article by New York Magazine earlier this year. Since then, publisher Dark Horse Comics has cancelled a project planned to work on Gaiman and a UK stage adaptation of his book Coraline was pulled from production.

Gaiman recently addressed the allegations on his blog: “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 what I perceive as misinformation.”