Author Neil Gaiman has admitted to breaking Scotland’s quarantine lockdown to travel to his holiday home on the isle of Skye. Gaiman started quarantine with his wife, musician Amanda Palmer, and their son, Ash, in Auckland, New Zealand. Gaiman left New Zealand to make the more than 11,000-mile journey to Skye. Gaiman says he journeyed to Skye to “isolate.” He posted an update to his blog on Thursday, writing, “Hullo from Scotland, where I am in rural lockdown on my own. I’m half a world away from Amanda and Ash, and missing both of them a lot. We check in on screens and phones twice a day, when I get up and before I sleep (which is when they go to sleep and when they get up) but it’s not the same.”
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He goes on to clarify some of the reports of what happened between him and Palmer. “Amanda and I had found ourselves in a rough place immediately before I left (my fault, I’m afraid, I’d hurt her feelings very badly, and… actually beyond that it’s none of anyone else’s business). We agreed that we needed to give each other some space, which had been in very short supply in lockdown in New Zealand. So it was a sad sort of flight, even without the world in lockdown, and a sad sort of drive.
“Yes, I’ve seen the newsfeed headlines saying I’ve moved to the UK, and even that we’re divorcing. No, I haven’t moved the UK, and yes, Amanda and I are still very much together, even with half a world between us.”
But Gaiman’s trip has drawn criticism for putting Skye locals in danger. Skye’s member of parliament, Ian Blackford, told The Sunday Times, “What is it about people, when they know we are in the middle of lockdown that they think they can come here from the other side of the planet, in turn endangering local people from exposure to this infection that they could have picked up at any step of the way? To descend on this island at this time, when we have a serious outbreak which has resulted in such tragic circumstances – it pays scant respect to the families of the bereaved and the people who live here.”
Gaiman and Palmer married in 2010 via a flash mob that Palmer out together for Gaiman’s 50th birthday. They made the marriage legal in 2011. The two have confirmed in the past that their relationship was an open marriage, going as far as to label it as “on-again, off-again” in a 2010 Sunday Times profile, saying that they’ve “shattered” each other’s hearts in the past.
Gaiman revealed a letter that he and Palmer co-authored about the situation. “We will sort out our marriage in private, which is where things like this are best sorted. We’re working together to try and do this better. We care about each other so much, and we have a small boy we love and delight in, and those are reasons enough to work together to fix things.”
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