Author who left wife and child in NEW ZEALAND and came to Scotland for lock down

[ssd]

I mean is he fucking nuts???

He left NEW ZEALAND to come here???

Apart from breaking lock down, obviously, who the hell would leave New Zealand?

Fud.

Can anyone here honestly say that if they owned two homes and needed to leave the main residence, they wouldn't head to the other one?

The man's marriage just broke up and he owns a house in an area that is presumably good for his soul. Have we lost every ounce of empathy in the joy of judging others over this?

Plus, probably, if you live in NZ, you've got a fairly strong impression that this crisis is over and he was obviously able to book the flights without anyone questioning it.

Good for his soul? Oh well, that's fine then. To hell with the safety of people who live on Skye all year round relying on already overstretched medical and social care services.

He doesn't live in NZ. He was a temporary visitor there. As he normally lives in the US and has family in the UK it would be extremely surprising if he hadn't been monitoring the news in both places, so he would know perfectly well that the crisis is far from over in the UK. Fairly sure the media in NZ will have been reporting on news from other places too.

And on the point about second homes, no, I wouldn't have gone to a second home in a remote area with no teaching hospitals and risk spreading the infection. Gaiman is a wealthy man who could go anywhere in the world. Going to Skye was selfish and arrogant. He's gone down a lot in my estimation over this.

Before this, I'd never heard of his wife - have done some reading about her and all I can say is - I'd have flown 11,000 miles to get away too.

The man's marriage just broke up and he owns a house in an area that is presumably good for his soul. Have we lost every ounce of empathy in the joy of judging others over this?

But according to their blog posts & announcements, their marriage hasn't broken up - they had some sort of tiff and he flounced.

Good for his soul? Oh well, that's fine then. To hell with the safety of people who live on Skye all year round relying on already overstretched medical and social care services.

There's really no reason to think the people of Skye are any more unsafe with him around than without him.

Ultrasoft No he wasn't able to book a normal flight. He got a space on a special repatriation flight to the USA, where he owns home(s). Then got on another flight from LA to London.

I note, a while ago I saw a thread from a woman living in England who's marriage was breaking up and she wanted to go back to her family in Scotland. The thread was near universally telling her to just get in a car and drive, because this was absolutely essential travel.

I also note that government guidelines have at no point suggested that Brits who were stranded abroad due to Coronavirus should stay there - they've all been trying to get home.

The only reason this seems to be different is that this man is famous. Otherwise he seems to have done the totally normal thing - was stuck abroad for a bit because lockdown hit while he was travelling. His marriage broke up. Lockdown eased enough that he could get home and so he did. He didn't go back to the other house he owned as he'd loaned it to others due to being away, so he travelled to his one actual empty house, that he pays tax on, in his home country that he has a passport for.

I still think that was the rational thing to do and what I'd have done myself.

I don't know or care about the man but having seen this and seen his twitter where he shushes people with Skye with concerns, I think his actions are disgusting. He came into contact with plenty of people on his way there but doesn't count them. I know that plenty of rich people have followed a different set of rules, judging by the number of private flights at our local airport. Disgusting.

Ollie he didn't go to his family in the UK though, he chose his holiday home to get away from his wife and little boy, who he says he isn't divorcing. And his wikipedia mentions not one but 2 homes in the USA, one in Wisconsin. Why cape for this man?

God MN is insane.

There are a thousand threads where posters are told they are literally killing people for buying non-essential food, going into their own gardens, sitting on park benches briefly to rest during exercise, sitting in a private field, people with severe mental illness being viciously attacked for seeking MH support, people with terminal illnesses being attacked for choosing to ignore the voluntary shielding advice.

An entitled, multi-millionaire man-child has a tiff with his wife and abandons his child to travel to a country he does not live in, to stay in a holiday home, even though he had to travel through his actual country of residence to get there, and everyone is defending him. And making up complete nonsense like “maybe he has young children living there” (he doesn’t) or “what if he was a young woman fleeing abuse and not a squillionaire very powerful man with homes across the country!!”

Typical. The rules never apply to wealthy men. If he was a woman MN would tear him apart.

I love the idea too that he couldn't go to the home he'd lent to friends as there wouldn't be room to self isolate in it. And yet others manage in a two bed council house.

Yes I can honestly say that if my marriage broke down I would not fly to a second home leaving my child behind with no indication of when I’d see them again.

Does he pay tax in the US as this is his permanent residence? Will be interesting to see if he stays in the UK long enough to pay tax here this year. His argument that he wanted to be in the UK so he had friends and family in the same timezone doesn't really wash if he usually lives in the US, does it?

The bit that irked me was that he traveled for 11,000 miles and the only place he could stay was on Skye?

He has now apologised to the people of Skye but what he did was very tone-deaf and I think he has been taken aback by the online reaction.

If divorce is on the cards he didn't want to be in the US. A point Prince Harry should also bear in mind.

Ah here we go, not really about a fallout with his self absorbed wife, about money:

English-born Gaiman said he had "panicked" at the thought of being stuck in New Zealand while all his upcoming work was in the UK. He said he followed advice on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's website for UK nationals to return home from abroad "where and while commercial routes" were available.

What a massive hypocrite:

Gaiman said: "I made a mistake. Don't do what I did. Don't come to the Highlands and Islands unless you have to."

Agree with Mintee, total hypocrite.

Maybe be did need to leave the marital home, but unless I’m very much mistaken, he could have rented a property in NZ, hunkered down and waited. Okay, he might lose some work; he can almost certainly afford to miss a few meet-and-greets. For anything else, Zoom it.

And to now tell people not to do what he did? Absolute arsehole.

If divorce is on the cards he didn't want to be in the US

I never thought of that Clemmieandareallybigbunfight. He claims they are not divorcing but I just checked and, if Woodstock is his US address, then New York is a community property state so you may have something there. I think divorce laws operate at state rather than federal level in the US. California is another community property state so yes if they stay in LA and divorce, it would apply to them too.

The man's marriage just broke up and he owns a house in an area that is presumably good for his soul. Have we lost every ounce of empathy in the joy of judging others over this?

Quite apart from the fact his marriage hasn't broken up, it was just expedient to temporarily say it had, why is his soul more important than his child's need for both parents when he (the child) is stranded far from his own home in a strange country with a very distressed mother? What about the child's soul - does it have any say in the matter?

A point Prince Harry should also bear in mind.

He will own exactly nothing.

Accountants and lawyers will have seen to that.

@Olliephaunt4eyes - was the woman on the other thread leaving her child behind too and going via one of her residences to one she preferred?
There are several differences between the two stories - entitlement being one of them.

All his upcoming work is in the UK? He's a writer, he can work anywhere. Meetings on Zoom or Teams or Skype or make a phone call. Bookshop signing events, conventions, film and TV launch events all off for the foreseeable future. Don't understand what he can do more easily from Skye than NZ.

Good point about the divorce laws.

The woman on the other thread was in danger of physical violence and had limited options about where she could go because of lack of money. Totally different situation from NG's.

I would have hoped for better from Neil Gaiman too