US judges dismiss lawsuits accusing fantasy author Neil Gaiman of sexual assault in New Zealand

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Federal judges have dismissed three lawsuits accusing bestselling British 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 multiple sexual assaults while she worked as the family’s nanny in 2022. She filed lawsuits against Palmer in Massachusetts and in New York on the same day she filed the Wisconsin action.

Gaiman has a home in northwestern Wisconsin, and Palmer lives in Massachusetts. Pavlovich moved to drop the New York lawsuit against Palmer in May, explaining in court documents that she filed an action in that state because Palmer had recently relocated from New York to Massachusetts and she was unsure which state had jurisdiction. U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in New York City granted the request in June.

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

Pavlovich’s attorneys didn’t respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment on Monday. Attorneys listed for Gaiman and Palmer didn’t respond to messages, either.

The AP doesn’t 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 leveled by eight women.

Pavlovich alleged in her lawsuits that she was 22 years old and homeless when she met Palmer in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2020. Palmer invited Pavlovich to the couple’s Waiheke Island home, and she eventually became their son’s nanny, according to the filings.

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

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 abused them, according to the lawsuits. The assaults finally stopped when Pavlovich told Palmer that she was going to kill herself, according to the filings.

Pavlovich went on to allege that Palmer knew of Gaiman’s sexual desires and presented her to him, knowing he would assault her. She argued that Gaiman and Palmer violated federal human trafficking prohibitions and demanded at least $7 million in damages

Gaiman released a statement after the New York magazine article was published, denying he had ever engaged in non-consensual sex with anyone.

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

Police in New Zealand investigated her assault allegations and found them meritless, the motion says. The attorneys went on to argue that Pavlovich’s lawsuits were the culmination of a plan to smear Gaiman and that any legal disputes should be resolved in New Zealand, not the United States.

Gaiman has authored numerous science fiction and fantasy works, including the novels “American Gods,” “The Graveyard Book,” “Anansi Boys” and the dark children’s fairy tale “Coraline.”

His 2013 novel, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” won the British National Book Award.