Katherine Kendall, 36, was one of the women interviewed by Lila Shapiro for the New York Magazine story.
According to the article, Gaiman later gave Kendall $60,000 to pay for therapy in an attempt, as he put it in a recorded phone call, to “make up some of the damage”.
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In his statement, Gaiman did not address specific allegations but said that he reviewed the messages he exchanged with some of the women “following the occasions that have subsequently been reported as being abusive”, and that the messages reflect “entirely consensual sexual relationships” that “seemed positive and happy on both sides”.
In an interview with the Times, Kendall described the “culture of secrecy” around Gaiman. “Neil’s works were his bait, and promotional events were his hunting ground,” she said. “As long as his publishers and professional collaborators remain silent, Neil will continue to have unrestricted access to vulnerable women.”
Kendra Stout, another of the women, told the magazine that in 2007, Gaiman forced her to have sex with him after she “had developed a [urinary tract infection] that had gotten so bad she couldn’t sit down”. The article states that last October Stout filed a police report in which she accused Gaiman of raping her.
“The silence of the community around him — his fandom, his publishers — is loud and disturbing,” Stout said in an interview with the Times. “I’ve heard that it was an open secret that he was a predator, but that whisper network did not reach me.”
On social media, a number of authors expressed their shock and horror over the allegations. But some authors who were friends of Gaiman’s held back. Married writers Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon, who hosted Gaiman’s 2011 wedding to musician-writer Amanda Palmer at their home, said they were still processing the reports.
Gaiman and Amanda Palmer pictured in 2019.Credit: WireImage
“I’m just trying to absorb all this and don’t know what to say,” Waldman wrote in an email.
Chabon responded similarly: “I just don’t have it in me to talk about it.”
Palmer, who separated from Gaiman several years ago, declined to comment through a spokesperson, who said that “while Ms Palmer is profoundly disturbed by the allegations that Mr. Gaiman has abused several women, at this time her primary concern is, and must remain, the well-being of her son and therefore, to guard his privacy, she has no comment on these allegations”.
After Gaiman published his statement, in which he noted that “I could have and should have done so much better” in his relationships with women, some of the women who have come forward said they were let down but not surprised.
Stout shared a statement from several of them — a few couldn’t be reached — responding to Gaiman’s post. It read, “We are disappointed to see the same non-apology that women in this situation have seen so many times before.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
