Novelist Neil Gaiman has broken his silence to deny reports that he raped and sexually abused a number of women – though he admitted he ‘should have done so much better.’

The 64-year-old author was first accused by five women in July of sexual assault, leading to the third season of Amazon’s Good Omens being scrapped.

Even more women have since revealed disturbing details about their encounters with the American Gods writer in a shocking report from New York Magazine.

With the women’s stories circulating online this week, Gaiman said he felt forced to address the allegations.

‘Over the past many months, I have watched the stories circulating the Internet about me with horror and dismay,’ he wrote on his website. 

‘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,’ Gaiman explained.

Author Neil Gaiman, 64, has broken his silence to deny reports that he raped and sexually abused a number of women – though he admitted he ‘should have done so much better’

He said he read through his accusers’ accounts of their relationships with him and found ‘there are moments I half recognize and moments I don’t, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen.

‘I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever,’ Gaiman claimed.

The author also said he even went back and read through the messages he shared with the woman accusing him of sexual assault.

‘These messages read now as they did when I received them – of two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again,’ he said. ‘At the time I was in those relationships, they seemed positive and happy on both sides.

‘And I also realize, looking through them, years later, that I could have and should have done so much better,’ the Coraline writer admitted.

‘I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could have or should have been.

‘I was obviously careless with people’s hearts and feelings, and that’s 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.’

The author admitted he was ’emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could have or should have been’

He is now trying to improve himself, he said.

‘I’ve spent some months now taking a long, hard look at who I have been and how I have made people feel,’ Gaiman told his readers.

‘Like most of us, I’m learning and I’m trying to do the work needed, and I know that that’s not an overnight process.

‘I hope that with the help of good people, I’ll continue to grow.

‘I understand that not everyone will believe me or even care what I say but I’ll be doing the work anyway, for myself and the people I love. I will be doing my very best to deserve their trust, as well as the trust of my readers.’ 

Still, he insisted, ‘I don’t accept there was any abuse.

‘To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.’ 

‘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,’ he claimed.

‘I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made,’ Gaiman concluded. ‘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.’

One of his accusers has claimed he raped her in an outdoor bathtub while she was nannying the son he shares with ex-wife Amanda Palmer, 48, on February 4, 2022. Gaiman is pictured with Palmer and his son in 2018

One of his accusers has claimed he raped her in an outdoor bathtub while she was nannying the son he shares with ex-wife Amanda Palmer, 48, on February 4, 2022.

Scarlett Pavlovich said the author encouraged her to take a bath after they finished dinner, despite her resistance. 

After she stripped down and got in, she claimed Gaiman got naked and joined. While he was in the tub, Pavlovich said he told her to stretch out.

‘I said ‘no.’ I said, ‘I’m not confident with my body,’ Pavlovich recounted. ‘[Gaiman] said, ‘It’s okay — it’s only me. Just relax. Just have a chat.’

But Pavlovich said the situation escalated, and Gaiman sexually assaulted her.

She claimed he penetrated her with his fingers, before attempting to do so with his penis – all while she told him no.

Pavlovich recalled how as Gaiman was climaxing, he asked if he could ejaculate on a certain part of her body – to which she declined. She claims he did so anyway. 

He allegedly told her during the act: ‘Call me master. Be a good girl. You’re a good little girl.’ 

Pavlovich said she cried and Googled ‘Me Too’ and ‘Neil Gaiman’ in the aftermath.

Despite what she allegedly endured, Palmer and Gaiman offered Pavlovich the chance to move to England and Scotland with them to continue her nannying job, to which she agreed. 

A former nanny for the couple claimed Palmer did not seem surprised by the allegations, reportedly replying: ‘Fourteen people have come to me about this’

In another incident, which occurred at a home on the New Zealand island of Waiheke, Pavlovich said Gaiman assaulted her while she was cleaning up the kitchen.

She said the author approached her from behind, pushed down her pants, began to beat her with his belt and then tried to penetrate her anally without lubrication.

After screaming no, Pavlovich said he grabbed butter out of the kitchen and used that as lubrication and penetrated her without using protection.

Pavlovich claimed when the rape was over he called her ‘slave’ and ordered her to ‘clean him up.’ 

The allegations published by the magazine detailed how Gaiman’s alleged horror would continue, night on night – causing the evenings of abuse to ‘blur together.’ 

Pavlovich claimed she would pass out from the pain of the sexual encounters, and recalled one instance when he was so forceful that she vomited over him – before he told her to lick it up. 

The abuse would allegedly occur while Gaiman’s young son was in the room, she said. 

At the time, Pavolvich said she did not describe her experiences as sexual assault – but noted that Palmer did not seem surprised by the allegations, reportedly replying: ‘Fourteen people have come to me about this.’

Palmer’s Instagram followers have urged her to make a statement about what she knew

Pavlovich filed a police report accusing Gaiman of sexual assault in January 2023, and urged police to contact Palmer as part of their investigation.

‘I said to them: “She’s a public feminist, and she knows what happened. She’ll want to protect me. I’m sure she’ll speak,'” Pavolvich told Vulture.

But Palmer is said to have declined to talk with officers when they contacted her later that year, while Gaiman provided a written statement and the investigation ended.

Still, it remains unclear how much Palmer, who was one-half the ‘punk cabaret’ duet the Dresden Dolls, knew about her now ex’s exploits, as her Instagram followers urge her to make a statement.

‘I am still trying SO hard to give you the benefit of the doubt. I AM worried about you. I want you to be okay as much as I want those 14 girls to be okay.

‘However. You cannot, CANNOT keep doing the work youve done to advocate for women and survivors of SA without a very long, thought out discussion about this NOT ON PATREON. NOT BEHIND A PAY WALL.

‘I absolutely f***ing loved you, and defended you to the ends of the earth, but now I am so, so disappointed.’

Another commented: ‘YOU WERE COMPLICIT IN THIS?! You’ve been a strength and inspiration to me and KNOWING WHAT HE WAS LIKE you presented him these vulnerable victims like gifts.

‘WE ARE F***ING DONE. I’ve said I love you over the years. I do not love you anymore. Not even remotely.’