It’s been over a year and a half since Neil Gaiman was first accused of sexual abuse, first in a podcast produced by Tortoise Media in July 2024 and again in a lengthy reported piece published by Vulture in January 2025. Though Gaiman did deny the allegations after the publication of Vulture‘s report, the author has now released a new statement in which he alleges that he was the victim of a smear campaign.
“I’ve learned firsthand how effective a smear campaign can be,” Gaiman writes near the top of his latest post on his website before reiterating his innocence. “These allegations, especially the really salacious ones, have been spread and amplified by people who seemed a lot more interested in outrage and getting clicks on headlines rather than whether things had actually happened or not. (They didn’t.)” Gaiman also claims that most journalism has failed him and has “dismissed or ignored” ” the actual evidence.” He then goes on to point to a Substack account with about 160 subscribers which he would “like to thank them personally for actually looking at the evidence and reporting what they found, which is not what anyone else had done.”
It should be noted that Gaiman has not been found guilty of sexual abuse in a court of law, but that the Vulture piece does include detailed evidence and allegations from multiple women. A lawsuit brought against Gaiman by one accuser, Scarlett Pavlovich, was dismissed by a Wisconsin judge last October, though the judge did not rule on the facts of the case; it was dismissed because the judge ruled it should have been filed in New Zealand rather than the United States, per Vulture. Gaiman also sued one of the accusers, Caroline Wallner, last April, claiming that she broke her NDA by sharing her accusations in the article.
You can read Gaiman’s full statement below.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything anywhere, but I didn’t want to let any more time go by without thanking everyone for all your kind messages of support over the last year and a half. I’ve learned firsthand how effective a smear campaign can be, so to be clear: The allegations against me are completely and simply untrue. There are emails, text messages and video evidence that flatly contradict them. These allegations, especially the really salacious ones, have been spread and amplified by people who seemed a lot more interested in outrage and getting clicks on headlines rather than whether things had actually happened or not. (They didn’t.)
One thing that’s kept me going through all this madness is the conviction that the truth would, eventually, come out. I expected that when the allegations were first made there would be journalism, and that the journalism would take the (mountains of) evidence into account, and was astonished to see how much of the reporting was simply an echo chamber, and how the actual evidence was dismissed or ignored.
I was a journalist once, and I have enormous respect for journalists, so I’ve been hugely heartened by the meticulous fact and evidence-based investigative writing of one particular journalist, whom some of you recently brought to my attention, who writes under the name of TechnoPathology.
I’ve had no contact with TechnoPathology. But I’d like to thank them personally for actually looking at the evidence and reporting what they found, which is not what anyone else had done. If you are curious about what they’ve uncovered so far, the link in this post takes you to really good investigative reporting.
It’s been a strange, turbulent and occasionally nightmarish year and a half, but I took my own advice (when things get tough, make good art) and once I was done with making television I went back to doing something else I love even more: writing. I thought it was going to be a fairly short project when I began it, but it’s looking like it’s going to be the biggest thing I’ve done since American Gods. It’s already much longer than The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and it’s barely finished wiping its boots and hanging up its coat. And I spend half of every month being a full-time Dad, and that remains the best bit of my life.
It’s a rough time for the world. I look at what’s happening on the home front and internationally, and I worry; and I am still convinced there are more good people out there than the other kind. Thank you again to so many of you for your belief in my innocence and your support for my work. It has meant the world to me.
Neil
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