Queen of Embarrassment

When Trump spoke about killing babies after they were born, he was talking about himself.

When Trump spoke about killing babies after they were born, he was talking about himself.

“JUst cOmMuniCaTe!!!”

It’s evil because it places the burden of communication entirely on their partners. However this is just a distraction– if their partner is busy trying to formulate the “right” way to speak about things to their partner, it distracts them from the fact that he is not willing to receive whatever is being communicated, no matter the method of delivery.

There is no perfect combination of words that will unlock this myth of open, generative communication. If a man is not willing to engage in dialogue, he will manipulate his way out of it every time.

JULIA IS NAMED AFTER A REAL WOMAN, JACINTHA BUDDICOM, WHO GEORGE ORWELL TRIED TO RAPE. he held her down, bruised her and ripped her skirt before she got away. he inserted her into his book, told a fictional version of her that he wanted to rape her, and the version which he wrote of her just laughed it off

Two more women have alleged that the bestselling author Neil Gaiman sexually assaulted or abused them, extending the timeline of his misconduct across five decades.

According to the new claims – which Gaiman denies – he

pressured a mother-of-three to have sex with him in return for letting her live with her daughters at his property in upstate New York; and

– made her sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for a $275,000 payment to help her cope with post-traumatic stress and depression following their sexual relationship.

A second woman says he jumped on her “out of the blue” in an “aggressive, unwanted” pass in the 1980s, when they were both in their twenties.

The women came forward after Tortoise published accounts last month of two other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Gaiman while in otherwise consensual relationships with him.

One of these women claims he assaulted her in an outdoor bathtub within hours of meeting her, when she was 22 and he was 61, and went on to have rough and degrading sex with her over the course of three weeks. The other woman, who met him as a teenage fan, says they began having similar sex when she was 20 and that he penetrated her against her wishes when she was 22.

While Gaiman’s account denied any non-consensual sex with the two women, their allegations raised questions about whether he had reasonable belief in consent for sex with them given their vulnerability. Gaiman asked one of them to sign a non-disclosure agreement, the first of two known NDAs he signed with former sexual partners, suggesting weak confidence that his account would survive public scrutiny.

The two new accounts — published today in a new episode of ‘Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman’ — have been corroborated through documents, emails, and messages seen by Tortoise as well as through interviews with friends and family who the women confided in. Gaiman did not provide any on-the-record response to multiple detailed requests for comment on either set of allegations.

Caroline Wallner lived in a house on Gaiman’s property in Woodstock, New York between 2014 and 2021 with her three young daughters and, until 2017, her husband. Alongside her work as a ceramic artist in a studio in a barn on the property, Wallner and her husband worked for Gaiman and his then wife Amanda Palmer, including doing property maintenance, gardening, and grocery shopping. Gaiman had moved to the area to teach at Bard College.

Around the time Wallner’s marriage ended in 2017, which she said devastated her emotionally, Gaiman told her ex-husband that there was no more work for him on the property, which had provided the family’s main income. Wallner and her daughters were now dependent on Gaiman for work and housing. While she was in this situation, Wallner, then 55, said that Gaiman began pressuring her for sex.

Wallner said: “There were little hints of, ‘we’re going to need the house’. And I remember saying, let’s talk about it. Let’s figure it out. That’s when he would just come to my studio and make me give him a blowjob”. There is no suggestion of physical force, but rather of coercion in light of her housing and family situation. Wallner said: “And he can say it was consensual. But why would I do that? It was because I was scared of losing my place”, characterising Gaiman’s treatment of her as “sexual abuse.”

The UN defines sexual abuse as actual or threatened sexual contact by force or coercive conditions. The UN’s refugee agency, where Gaiman is a goodwill ambassador, has described the allegations against him published by Tortoise as “very serious”, adding that it is “assessing the detailed reporting”.

During Gaiman’s oral sex with Wallner, she said “he used to say to me ‘Call me your master. Tell me you want it. Tell me you want it.’ He would choke me sometimes.” Wallner recalled one incident where she had fallen asleep reading in bed: “When I woke up, Neil was in the bed and he put my hand on his cock.”

Wallner said that whenever she resisted his sexual advances, Gaiman would tell her Palmer wanted the house back where she lived with her three daughters, as well as the studio she worked in. Wallner recalled one occasion when she said Gaiman told her: ‘‘but you take care of me and I’ll take care of you”, understanding it to be a reference to what she called the “sexual trade”.

Gaiman’s position is that his relationship with Wallner was entirely consensual and denies any wrongdoing with her. His account is that their sexual encounters were instigated by her.

Palmer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

When Gaiman left the Woodstock property during the Covid pandemic, Wallner said she felt “so, so relieved”. But then Gaiman began sending her sexually explicit photos and videos of himself, asking her to send him ones of herself. After Wallner stopped answering Gaiman’s sexual video calls, in June 2021, she said his business manager told her to vacate the property by December that year.

Gaiman’s position is that this request was always a possibility, as Wallner had been living there with her family rent-free for the preceding six years. This position does not acknowledge Wallner and her ex-husband’s work for Gaiman and Palmer while she lived on the property.

Gaiman’s business manager initially offered Wallner $5,000 as compensation for leaving the property, requesting that she sign a confidentiality agreement. The area saw the highest house price growth of any US metropolitan region during the pandemic, so Wallner asked for more time to find affordable housing for her and her daughters.

Wallner said she was treated for depression and post-traumatic stress during this period with the financial support of a friend. After finishing her stay at a therapy centre, Wallner emailed Gaiman’s representatives on 9 December 2021, saying she had tried “to come up with an amount that I feel justifies signing a release that in essence takes away my agency to speak freely about what I went through. 300K is what I came up with. 150 for the real estate issues and 150 for the sexual ‘trade’ issue – something that I am trying to come to terms with. Therapy alone is costing a fortune.”

Gaiman settled with Wallner for $275,000 and a non-disclosure agreement less than two weeks later. The NDA “disputes and denies that Wallner has sustained any losses, damages, or injuries for which Gaiman is legally responsible.” Gaiman’s position is that he settled with her to avoid expensive and protracted litigation.

The NDA prohibits Wallner from talking about Gaiman with “family members, friends, associates” and from filing, reporting, or prosecuting any action or proceeding in “any court, governmental agency, or before any tribunal whatsoever or wheresoever”. If Wallner is asked to make disclosures by a “valid legal process”, the NDA says she must give Gaiman 20 days notice and help him resist disclosure.

New York courts have voided NDAs that sought to frustrate official investigations and, across the US, NDAs are void when they attempt to limit reporting of criminal allegations by an alleged witness or alleged victim.

Gaiman’s position is that his NDA with Wallner makes no reference to law enforcement and that there is nothing to report anyhow. His position is that the NDA used language that was deemed appropriate to both parties’ experienced lawyers.

Andrew Brettler, who has acted for Russell Brand, Danny Masterson, and Prince Andrew, represented Gaiman. Wallner said she is looking for new legal representation.

along with bryan singer, russell brand, and danny masterson. he also owns a firm with blair berk, who is celebrated for making celebrities’ legal problems (especially sexual assault) disappear, and whose clients have included:

The only thing men have is greater sheer strength, but that might not even be true: studies of ancient women's bones showed, because of all the physical labor they did, they were stronger than today's professional female athletes! Women today are discouraged from strength training, and discouraged from eating enough. I bet the strength disparity would be so much less if we ate better and exercised to our potential...