US judges reject lawsuits accusing Neil Gaiman of sexual assault | Neil Gaiman

Federal judges have dismissed three lawsuits accusing best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman of sexually assaulting his children’s nanny in New Zealand four years ago.

Scarlett Pavlovich filed a lawsuit against Gaiman and his wife, Amanda Palmer, in Wisconsin in February 2025, accusing Gaiman of committing multiple sexual assaults while working as the family’s nanny in 2022. She filed lawsuits against Palmer in Massachusetts and in New York on the same day as the Wisconsin suit.

Gaiman has a home in northwestern Wisconsin, and Palmer lives in Massachusetts. Pavlovich moved to dismiss the New York lawsuit against Palmer in May, explaining in court documents that she filed suit in that state because Palmer had recently moved from New York to Massachusetts and was unsure which state had jurisdiction. US District Judge Mary Kay Viskocel in New York granted the request in June.

Pavlovich also dropped the portion of the lawsuit against Palmer in Wisconsin in May, and U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison dropped the remainder of the lawsuit in October, saying Pavlovich needed to pursue the case in New Zealand. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston dismissed the Massachusetts lawsuit on Friday for the same reasons.

Pavlovich’s lawyers did not respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday. Lawyers listed for Gaiman and Palmer did not respond to messages either.

The AP does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they publicly identify themselves. Pavlovich identified herself in an interview with New York Magazine, which published an article in January 2025 detailing allegations of assault, abuse and coercion made by eight women.

Pavlovich claimed in her lawsuits that she was 22 and homeless when she met Palmer in Oakland in 2020. Palmer invited Pavlovich to the couple’s home on Waiheke Island, and she eventually became their son’s nanny, according to the filings.

Pavlovich alleged in the lawsuits that Gaiman sexually assaulted her the night they met in February 2022. The assaults continued, according to the filings, but she continued to work for the couple because she was broke and homeless, and Gaiman told her he would help her with her writing career.

When she told Palmer about the assaults, Palmer told her that more than a dozen women had told her in the past that Gaiman had sexually assaulted them, according to the lawsuits. The assaults finally stopped when Pavlovich told Palmer she was going to kill herself, according to the files.

Pavlovich went on to claim that Palmer was aware of Gaiman’s sexual desires and submitted to him knowing he would assault her. It said Gaiman and Palmer violated the federal ban on human trafficking and sought damages of at least $7 million.

Gaiman issued a statement after the New York Magazine article was published, in which he denied sexually assaulting anyone.

Gaiman’s lawyers argued in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in Wisconsin that Gaiman and Pavlovich had a brief personal relationship that included a “consensual intimate physical relationship.”

The motion stated that police in New Zealand investigated the allegations of assault against her and found them to be unfounded. The lawyers went on to argue that Pavlovich’s lawsuits were the culmination of a plan to discredit Gaiman and that any legal disputes should be resolved in New Zealand, not the United States.

Gaiman is the author of numerous works of science fiction and fantasy, including the novels American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, and the dark children’s fairy tale, Coraline.

In 2013, his novel The Ocean at the End of the Road won the National Book Award in Britain.