Amanda Palmer, the musician and former partner of Neil Gaiman, has denied allegations of human trafficking and negligence made in a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who previously worked for the couple in New Zealand.
“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,” wrote Palmer in an Instagram post on Friday, adding that her “heart goes out to all survivors”.
On 3 February, Scarlett Pavlovich filed a lawsuit to district courts in Wisconsin, New York and Massachusetts accusing Gaiman of repeated rape and sexual assault, and Palmer of “procuring and presenting” her to Gaiman “for such abuse”.
Nine women have now accused Gaiman of sexual misconduct, eight of whom were interviewed for a New York Magazine piece published on 13 January.
The following day, Gaiman published a statement on his website stating that he had “never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.”
Palmer and Gaiman, who married in 2011 and had a child together in 2015, announced in 2022 that they had decided to divorce.
On 15 January, Palmer said in an initial Instagram statement that because of ongoing custody and divorce proceedings, she was unable to offer public comment on the allegations. A representative for Palmer told NME that she “is profoundly disturbed” by the allegations against Gaiman.
The lawsuit states that Pavlovich met Palmer in Auckland in 2020, when Pavlovich was 22, and the two became acquaintances. Pavlovich would sometimes run errands for Palmer, and eventually became the couple’s nanny.
The lawsuit alleges that Gaiman repeatedly sexually assaulted Pavlovich while she was working without pay during a “three-week indenture”. At the time, she was “broke and homeless”, and Gaiman and Palmer “intentionally withheld” pay to keep her “trapped, vulnerable, and penniless”, it claims.
Pavlovich said when she went to Palmer about the assaults, Palmer told her that other women had previously come to her about abusive sexual encounters with Gaiman.
The lawsuit states that Palmer “knowingly approached and procured the services of Scarlett with reckless disregard for the fact that Gaiman would force Scarlett to engage in commercial sex acts” with him.
“I thank you all deeply for continuing to respect my recent request for privacy as I navigate this extremely difficult moment”, Palmer wrote in her post on Friday. “I must protect my young child and his right to privacy.”
