Neil Gaiman forcefully pushed back against the sexual assault allegations that have been levied against him, issuing a lengthy statement on his website Tuesday. Titled "Breaking the Silence," Gaiman's post acknowledges consensual sexual relationships with his accusers, but insists he never crossed the line. "As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognize and moments I don't, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen. I'm far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever," he writes. Since the allegations were made public, three screen adaptations of Gaiman's work have been paused or canceled, the Guardian and USA Today report.
Gaiman says he has reviewed messages from the aforementioned relationships in the wake of the allegations, and saw nothing other than reflections of what he remembers as romances that "seemed positive and happy on both sides." While he acknowledges he "could have and should have done so much better" in terms of being emotionally available to his partners, he insists there was no abuse of any kind. "Some of the horrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality," he writes. "I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. I'm not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can't accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn't do." (Click for much more on the allegations.)
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