Author Neil Gaiman has denied allegations of sexually abusive behaviour against two women during consensual relationships.
According to an investigation for the Tortoise podcast hosted by journalist and presenter Rachel Johnson, the award-winning British writer allegedly sexually assaulted one of the women just hours after their first meeting, when she was 22 and he was 61.
She filed a complaint against him with the police, although he was never interviewed or charged with any crime due to lack of evidence.
He has strongly denied any sexual misconduct and any allegations of non-consensual sex.
Mr Gaiman, 63, is the author of books including The Sandman, American Gods and the children’s book Coraline, and co-wrote Good Omens with author Terry Pratchett, which was later turned into a BBC and Amazon television series.
Author Neil Gaiman (pictured in August 2019) has denied allegations of sexually abusive behaviour against two women during consensual relationships.
Mr Gaiman, 63 (pictured in New York last month) is the author of books including The Sandman, American Gods and the children’s book Coraline, and co-wrote Good Omens with the author Terry Pratchett, which was later turned into a BBC and Amazon television series.
The women’s allegations were revealed in a Tortoise Media podcast series, ‘Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman,’ which made clear that both women were in consensual relationships with the writer.
Both claim they were subjected to physically painful and degrading sexual encounters during their relationships with Mr. Gaiman.
One of the women told the podcast that they had a three-week sexual relationship and that he told her: “I am your master. Call me master.”
She said he had strangled her and that one encounter was so painful that she lost consciousness, and that she found it “abhorrent and degrading.”
The woman said she met Gaiman in 2022 while he was married to his then-wife Amanda Palmer.
The couple had an open marriage and lived in separate homes on the exclusive island of Waiheke, near Auckland.
The woman alleged that when she arrived at Gaiman’s house, the writer sexually assaulted her that night.
But the podcast did include a message she sent him the next day, in which she wrote: “Thanks for a lovely evening. Wow x.”
Both women say they were subjected to physically painful and degrading sexual encounters during their relationships with Mr Gaiman (pictured in 2013).
Tortoise reported that she sent Mr. Gaiman numerous text messages and videos in which she explicitly stated that she had given consent during their sexual encounters and also said that she loved him and was grateful to him.
The woman told the podcast: “He made me feel at the end like it was consensual, but it wasn’t.” She added: “He kind of drew me into his psychological labyrinth, so it wasn’t easy at all.”
The woman reported Mr Gaiman to the police after he returned to Britain.
Tortoise said Mr. Gaiman was aware of the police complaint and offered to speak to officers, but they did not interview him and dropped the complaint due to lack of evidence.
Tortoise reportedly insisted that their sexual encounters were completely consensual and that they did not have full intercourse.
The second woman met Mr. Gaiman when she was 18 in 2003.
They began a relationship when she was 20 and he was 40. She told the podcast that she had submitted to sex but had neither desired nor enjoyed it, and that they once had sex when she had explicitly told him she did not want to.
She said: “I never wanted anything he did to me, including the more violent things. But I did consent to it.” Tortoise reported that Gaiman denied any illegal behaviour with K and was “disturbed by her allegations”.
Representatives for Gaiman, who lives in the United States, did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail.
