- Lawyer for woman portrayed in Netflix show speaks out
- Creator Richard Gadd says series is based on his own life
- ‘Baby Reindeer’ has more than 85 million streams
Updated:
(NewsNation) — Fiona Harvey is suing Netflix for at least $170 million for defamation of character and negligence after she claimed the streaming service viciously destroyed her life by creating a character in the series “Baby Reindeer” that was linked to her real-life existence.
“When Netflix starts the series, it says, ‘This is a true story,’ so you better make sure it’s true,” Harvey’s lawyer, Richard Roth, said Tuesday night on “CUOMO.” “Spoiler alert, during the series, it comes up that she was convicted of stalking and spent four and a half years in jail. Never happened.”
Harvey, who lives in England, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Central California and named Netflix as the lone defendant. In the 34-page suit, Harvey also claims intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and violation of her right of publicity with what she claims are “brutal lies” included in the hit series.
The lawsuit says Richard Gadd, the show’s creator, claims the series is based on his own true story, when he was a failing comedian dealing with a stalker. Before filing the lawsuit in California, Harvey said that it became clear to her that the stalker, Martha, depicted in the series by actor Jessica Gunning, is her.
The seven-episode series, which began streaming in April, has drawn more than 85 million views on Netflix.
In the suit, Harvey claims the series depicts her as a twice-convicted stalker who later sexually assaulted Gadd. The suit says that Netflix “told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money.”
The suit also alleges Netflix never confirmed that the story Gadd told was actually true. In the series, Gadd plays a fictionalized character of himself named Donny Dunn. The series claims that over multiple years, Martha sent Gadd more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of emails and more than 350 hours of voicemails.
The lawsuit claims Gadd said in a magazine interview that he went to great lengths to disguise the real person behind the Martha character and that he doubted she would recognize herself in the show.
“What’s been borrowed is an emotional truth,” Gadd said in the interview, “not a fact-by-fact profile of someone.”
However, Harvey claims soon after the series aired, social media activity identified her as the real-life Martha character. Harvey interacted with Gadd on social media and internet sleuths detected that phrases used in the series were used in their online interactions.
The lawsuit indicates several online platforms, including Reddit and TikTok, had thousands of users identifying and naming Harvey as the real-life Martha.
The suit claims that within days of the series’ airing, Harvey’s identity had become “completely undisguised.”
Roth told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo that “If you want to do a true story,” the show creators should have “made her look different.”
“Make her from a different heritage. Give her a different accent. .. They did nothing. Everything in here leads to Fiona Harvey, and it’s very easy to find out who it is,” Roth added.
The lawsuit seeks at least $50 million in actual damages, $50 million in compensatory damages for mental anguish, loss of the enjoyment of life and loss of business, $50 million for the profits of the series, and $20 million in punitive damages.
Netflix issued a statement saying it intends to “defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”
This article mentions sexual assault. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673.
NewsNation’s Jeff Arnold contributed to this report.
