Amanda Palmer, wife of Neil Gaiman, denies sex-trafficking allegation
Amanda Palmer, the estranged wife of author and accused sex predator Neil Gaiman, has denied allegations levelled against her in US court proceedings by former nanny Scarlett Pavlovich.
Pavlovich, who was a 22-year-old drama student when she met Palmer on an Auckland street in 2020, has accused Gaiman of human trafficking, sexual abuse, assault, rape, and coercion, beginning in February 2022. The suit also names Palmer, accusing her of “procuring” Pavlovich for Gaiman and failing to warn her of her husband’s history of alleged sexual misconduct.
Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman during the shooting of Who Killed Amanda Palmer.
Palmer, who rose to fame as one-half of the feminist punk cabaret act Dresden Dolls, posted on social media over the weekend in response to the suit that was filed a week earlier.
Stressing that she maintains her “recent request for privacy as I navigate this extremely difficult moment” and that her chief desire was to “protect my young child and his privacy”, she added: “I will not respond to the specific allegations being made against me except to say that I deny the allegations and will respond in due course.”
Although the accusations occurred in New Zealand, where Palmer and Gaiman owned separate houses, Pavlovich’s suit has been filed in three US states, including Wisconsin, where Gaiman owns a home, and New York and Massachusetts, where Palmer has residency.
According to the BBC, Pavlovich is seeking at least $US7 million ($11.1 million) in damages.
Pavlovich’s story first became public in July 2024, when it was told in the first episode of the podcast The Master. Identified only by her first name, she recounted how Gaiman had coerced her into sex in an outdoor bathtub in the garden of his home on the island of Waiheke, near Auckland, after she had been sent there by Palmer ostensibly to babysit the pair’s child.
In a lengthy article in New York Magazine last month, Pavlovich gave a more detailed account of the ongoing abuse she allegedly experienced at the hands of the now 64-year-old English-born graphic novelist, author and screenwriter.
