Federal judges dismiss lawsuits against author Neil Gaiman over nanny claims

Body

Federal judges dismissed three lawsuits accusing bestselling fantasy author Neil Gaiman of sexually assaulting his children’s nanny in New Zealand, according to U.S. court decisions reported by The Associated Press. The rulings came as Scarlett Pavlovich, the nanny who brought the claims, pursued separate actions in multiple U.S. states over allegations she tied to events in 2022.

Pavlovich filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin in February 2025 that accused Gaiman and his wife, Amanda Palmer, of multiple sexual assaults, according to the report. She also filed separate lawsuits against Palmer in Massachusetts and New York on the same day.

In New York, Pavlovich asked the court to drop the lawsuit against Palmer, explaining in court documents that she had filed in New York because Palmer had recently relocated from New York to Massachusetts, leaving Pavlovich unsure which state had jurisdiction. U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil granted the request in June, The Associated Press reported.

In Wisconsin, Pavlovich later dropped the portion of the case against Palmer in May, and U.S. District Judge James Peterson dismissed the remainder in October. The judge said Pavlovich needed to pursue the case in New Zealand, and the Associated Press reported that the Massachusetts dismissal was issued on the same grounds.

A third decision came in Massachusetts, where U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton threw out the Massachusetts filing on Friday. As with the other rulings described by AP, the dismissal directed the dispute back toward New Zealand rather than allowing the U.S. cases to proceed.

The Associated Press reported that Pavlovich’s attorneys did not respond to emails seeking comment, and attorneys listed for Gaiman and Palmer also did not respond to messages. The AP said it 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 published in January 2025 that detailed allegations by eight women.

According to the report, Pavlovich alleged in the lawsuits that she was 22 and homeless when she met Palmer in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2020. The Associated Press said Palmer invited her to the couple’s Waiheke Island home and that Pavlovich later became the family’s nanny.

Pavlovich alleged that Gaiman sexually assaulted her on the night they met in February 2022 and that the assaults continued. She said she kept working for the couple while she was broke and homeless, and that Gaiman told her he would help her writing career, according to the court filings summarized by AP.

When Pavlovich told Palmer about the assaults, the Associated Press reported that Palmer told her that more than a dozen women had previously said Gaiman had sexually abused them, as described in the lawsuits. The Associated Press also reported that Pavlovich alleged the assaults stopped only after she told Palmer she was going to kill herself.

Pavlovich also alleged that Palmer knew of Gaiman’s sexual desires and presented her to him, knowing he would assault her. In the lawsuits, she argued Gaiman and Palmer violated federal human trafficking prohibitions and demanded at least $7 million in damages, according to AP’s account.

Gaiman denied the allegations in a statement released after the New York magazine article, The Associated Press reported. In a motion to dismiss the Wisconsin lawsuit, Gaiman’s attorneys argued that his relationship with Pavlovich involved “consensual physical intimacy,” and they said New Zealand police investigated the allegations and found them meritless. The motion also said the U.S. lawsuits were part of a plan to smear Gaiman and that any legal disputes should be resolved in New Zealand rather than in the United States.

Gaiman has authored numerous science fiction and fantasy works, including “American Gods,” “The Graveyard Book,” “Anansi Boys” and “Coraline,” according to the report.