Tortoise releases new podcast episode about Neil Gaiman (Claire's story from Am I Broken)
NEW: On recorded calls, Neil Gaiman tells a woman he allegedly sexual assaulted that he "obviously fucked up", offers her $60,000 for her therapy, and promises to make a "hefty donation" to a rape crisis centre.
He sent the money, but never donated.https://t.co/OcdzM8O8bv
- Paul Caruana Galizia (@pcaruanagalizia) August 27, 2024
On an episode of the Am I Broken: Survivor Stories podcast (Apple/Spotify), Claire (a pseudonym) disclosed her account of "being groomed and sexually coerced and manipulated by world-renowned author Neil Gaiman". Today, Tortoise published a new episode of their 'Master' podcast series dedicated covering allegations about Neil Gaiman's history of sexual abuse (Apple/Spotify).
The podcast episode was originally recorded in 2022. After recording, Claire decided that she wasn't ready to go public with her story, but committed to coming forward in the event that others came forward with their stories. After the first batch of podcast episodes from Tortoise (see the ONTD post here), Claire reached out to Am I Broken and gave consent for her story to be shared.
Tortoise has previously updated their series on Neil Gaiman (entitled "Master", referring to Neil's alleged preference for the women he abused to address him as such) when two additional women (Caroline Wallner and Julia Hobsbawm OBE) came forward (see the ONTD post here). Notably, both Wallner and Hobsbawm shared their stories under their full real names.
Altogether, five women have come forward.
The new episode contains a recorded phone call between Claire and Gaiman in July 2022 which he admits he "obviously fucked up", offers her $60,000 to cover her therapy costs over the previous ten years (since meeting him in 2012 at the age of 22), and commits to making a "hefty donation" to a rape crisis centre. The donation never materialized.
Additionally, Claire recounts instances where Gaiman said that he struggles with "human relations" due to being "high-functioning autistic", that he "normally keeps fans at arms length", and that Claire was the one to make the first move because Gaiman would "have never made the first move on anybody" as he would "be terrified of that". He further indicated that their 30 year age gap was inappropriate, saying, "The me of 10 years ago might have done. But the me of today has learnt a lot."
Note: this phone call (of July 2022) took place several months after Gaiman's alleged abuse of Scarlett began (in February 2022). Scarlett is forty years younger than Gaiman.
Gaiman's account to Tortoise denied Claire's allegations. Additionally, Gaiman has not made any public statements since Tortoise first broke the story on July 3 and has declined all requests for interviews and on-the-record statements. This is why the Tortoise podcast relays Gaiman's position rather than quoting him directly.
However, as Paul Caruana Galizia says in his final tweet in that thread, "With the recordings, we now have him speaking in his own voice, and he says he apologises and accepts responsibility for his alleged sexual misconduct in one woman's case."
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