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Neil Gaiman denies abuse allegations: "things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen"

The writer of Coraline, Sandman, American Gods, and co-creator of Good Omens has broken his silence over allegations of decades of abusive behavior, describing them as distorted or simply entirely fictional

News by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Published on Wed Jan 15 2025

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Sandman creator and accused serial abuser Neil Gaiman has broken his silence in the face of multiple allegations of sexual abuse, defiantly denying the accusations while notably lacking substantial contrition or engaging with the details from multiple parties surrounding his behavior.

Gaiman’s abuse of multiple woman across decades was first reported as part of a 2024 podcast series from Tortoise Media titled Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman, with another victim coming forward for another podcast, Am I Broken: Survivor Stories. In January 2025, New York Magazine’s Vulture published an in-depth piece collecting these allegations and combining it with new reporting to provide the most intense — and most disturbing — account of his behavior of coercion, and sexual and mental abuse, to date.

(The reports above, especially the Vulture report, should be considered only to be approached with trigger warnings attached.)

During all of the above, Gaiman had been notably silent, even as Prime Video essentially cancelled his series Good Omens, replacing the announced third season with one final episode without Gaiman’s involvement, while Disney similarly put its planned adaptation of Gaiman’s novel The Graveyard Book on hold. With the Vulture story prompting new discussion of his disturbing and repeated misbehavior, however, that finally changed — although the author is surprisingly unrepentant.

“As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don’t, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen,” he wrote in a post fittingly if unimaginatively entitled Breaking The Silence on his website. “I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.”

The post goes on to note that, while he “was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been,” as well as being “obviously careless with people's hearts and feelings,” he is, he says, focused on learning and growing... and strenuously denying the accounts of his victims.

“As I reflect on my past – and as I re-review everything that actually happened as opposed to what is being alleged – I don't accept there was any abuse. To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone,” he wrote. “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. I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. 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.”

While this attitude is unusual from abusers newly outed — traditionally, statements about being imperfect and wishing to grow to be a better person are paired with apologies to those they have hurt; notably, Gaiman does not once actually apologize to his victims, instead choosing to outright deny their experience — it’ll be curious to see how Gaiman’s collaborators, in terms of both artistic and business enterprises, respond to such a blanket refusal to engage with the many very serious accusations against him in the weeks and months ahead… and whether Gaiman will find himself re-addressing the situation in a more serious, and ideally more humble, manner in the near future.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.