Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer Separate

Author Neil Gaiman and musician Amanda Palmer have separated. Both parties confirmed their split via social media, though they’re keeping the details — such as what led to this, whether they’re divorcing, or if they hope for reconciliation — private at this time. Palmer revealed via her Patreon blog that Gaiman has moved back to the United Kingdom, where he was born, while she is staying in New Zealand with their four-year-old son Ash. On Monday, Gaiman Tweeted, “I see @amandapalmer has told people that we (like much of the world) are going through rocky times right now. It is true, we are. It’s really hard, and I’d like to request privacy (as I’m not going to be talking about it publicly) and kindness, for us and for Ash.”

Palmer posted to her blog on Sunday, writing, “Since people are getting confused and asking and my phone and inbox is blowing up with ‘where’s Neil?’ a few times a minute … I can only gather that he’s finally told the internet that he’s left New Zealand, and I thought I would come here with a short note. Neil moved to the UK, my heart has been broken, and I am really struggling,” she continued. “I’m still in lockdown here in New Zealand with 4-year-old [son] Ash for the foreseeable future.”

The two were married in 2010 via a flash mob that Palmer organized 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. “We’ve both shattered one another’s hearts occasionally through bad choices, but our relationship stands it,” Palmer said. “We’re not interested in having big, multiple relationships. We’re just slutty, but compassionately so.”

In addition to their romantic relationship, Gaiman and Palmer collaborated artistically. Gaiman co-wrote a song on Palmer’s album Who Killed Amanda Palmer? and wrote the prose in the companion book of photographs. The two of them have toured together, with Gaiman reading passages and poems and occasionally singing.

Palmer rose to fame as a member fo the musical duo The Dresden Dolls. She’s then, since gone on to have a solo career. She also wrote the memoir The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, published in 2014, in which she expanded on the topic she broached in a TED talk.

Gaiman broke big as a writer by penning The Sandman for DC Comics. He went on to write novels such as Coraline, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Stardust, and Neverwhere. He was showrunner on Amazon’s television adaptation of Good Omens, a novel he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett. He’s now working on the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman.

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