In a lawsuit, the former nanny of best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman and his divorced wife, Amanda Palmer, alleges that Gaiman regularly sexually assaulted her and insisted that she refer to him as “master.”
Scarlett Pavlovich accused Gaiman and Palmer of breaking federal laws against human trafficking in lawsuits she filed Monday in federal courts in Massachusetts, New York, and Wisconsin. She is requesting damages of more than $7 million.
In a podcast called Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman, Pavlovich and four other women made accusations of abuse against Gaiman in July. He was accused of unwelcome sexual contact by five women, including Pavlovich (who did not disclose her full name on the podcast). Later, Pavlovich revealed her full name and described the assault claims in a story published last month in the New York Magazine. The report included claims from eight other women.
According to Pavlovich, she met the pair in 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand, when she was 22 years old. Palmer, she said, invited her to her house on Waiheke Island, which is roughly 40 minutes away from Auckland via ferry. According to the suit, she started out helping the couple by doing errands before taking care of their son and doing housework.
British author Gaiman, who currently resides in Wisconsin, is the author of almost 50 books, several of which have been made into movies and television shows, such as Coraline and The Sandman. Palmer, who is from upstate New York, made her mark as a member of the Dresden Dolls, a punk cabaret group. In 2022, the couple declared their divorce.
In a statement posted on his website last month, Gaiman previously refuted the accusations made by accusers. Even though I’m far from ideal, I’ve never had sex with someone against their will. “Ever,” he wrote.
He called it selfish and expressed sorry for his blatant disregard for other people’s sentiments and hearts. He wrote, however, that some of the terrible stories that are currently being recounted are so skewed from what actually happened that they have no connection to truth, while others just never happened.
Palmer stated on Instagram prior to the lawsuit’s filing that she was unable to comment since custody and divorce proceedings were still pending. After getting married in 2011, the pair has a single child together.
Requests for comment on Tuesday were not immediately answered by Palmer or Gaiman. Regarding the latest litigation, neither has made any public remarks.
According to the lawsuit, Gaiman and Scarlett had numerous nonconsensual sex activities. Those behaviors were degrading and abusive. Scarlett put up with those behaviors because, if she didn’t, she would lose her job, her apartment, and the support she had been promised for her future career.
According to court documents, Palmer was involved in obtaining and introducing Pavlovich to her husband. According to the lawsuit, Palmer had previously received complaints from over a dozen women, including a number of former workers, regarding violent sexual encounters with Gaiman.
The lawsuit characterizes Pavlovich as the couple’s economic prisoner, claiming that she had nowhere to go and would have been homeless if she had left.
According to the lawsuit, Scarlett was aware that she had two options: either she would try to flee or she would submit to Gaiman’s violence and pressure.
According to the report, Pavlovich was sleeping on the beach and broke when she first encountered the couple. Pavlovich, a lesbian, was also experiencing serious mental health issues. According to the lawsuit, Pavlovich was also raped by a middle-aged male when she was fifteen years old.
In the court filings, Pavlovich stated that Palmer knew about her past.
According to Pavlovich, the first sexual attack occurred on February 4, 2022, while she was visiting Gaiman’s home in New Zealand. She claimed that Gaiman, who was 61 at the time, referred to her as his slave and that the attacks persisted until she threatened to commit suicide and was admitted to the hospital.
According to the lawsuit, certain incidents happened when Gaiman and Palmer’s child was present.
According to the documents, Gaiman compensated Pavlovich for the babysitting she had done and assisted with her rent for a few months after she was discharged from the hospital.
Pavlovich said that because she had called Gaiman a Weinstein and predicted that he would unavoidably be MeTooed, Palmer would support her allegations when she reported the rapes to the police.
According to the documents, her hope was in vain. Palmer refused to speak to the police, so they did nothing.
Since the accusations were made public last year, Gaiman has endured some professional repercussions. Last month, Dark Horse Comics announced on X that it will no longer be publishing his books. According to reports, a potential movie adaptation of one of his books was shelved.