Fiona Harvey, alleged real-life basis for Baby Reindeer’s Martha, sues Netflix for $170 million

Update, 9:00 p.m., 6/6/2024: Netflix has now issued a statement in response to Harvey’s lawsuit, saying, “We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”

Original story: Fiona Harvey, the woman who says she’s the basis for the character of persistent stalker Martha in Richard Gadd’s Netflix series Baby Reindeer, has now sued the streamer. Harvey, who blasted both Gadd and Netflix for propagating “the biggest lie in television history” by opening the show with the line “This is a true story,” is reportedly seeking at least $170 million in damages from the company. Although Harvey’s lawsuit says Gadd also “destroyed her reputation, her character and her life,” she is not also suing the writer, actor, and comedian; Netflix is being hit with charges of “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, and violations of Harvey’s right of publicity.”

Speculation about the real-life basis for Baby Reindeer—which does, as Harvey’s suit notes, begin by foregrounding the fact that it’s based on Gadd’s life—kicked off pretty much from the moment the show released. (Despite Gadd quickly putting out a statement that this kind of true crime unraveling of the tale was both unwelcome, and counter to what the show was meant to achieve.) According to the suit, Harvey began receiving messages and calls from people accusing her of being the “real” Martha within days of the show coming out. (She specifically cites both basic similarities between the character and herself, and the show referencing a Twitter message she sent to Gadd in 2014, which several online detectives discovered.) Harvey’s suit alleges that she has faced harassment and death threats in large quantities since her association with the show was discovered.

Harvey’s suit covers quite a bit of the same material she discussed in her frankly dispiriting interview with Piers Morgan, but focuses on a series of assertions: That she, unlike the character of Martha, has never been convicted of stalking; that she never sexually assaulted Gadd or attacked him physically; that several other negative actions attributed to Martha in the show had nothing to do with her life. (She also includes a fair number of attacks on Gadd, including referring to some of the things in the show as a “psychotic lie,” and citing some of the more self-effacing moments in the series as a way to paint him in a very negative light.)

Still, though, all the legal fire is kept pointed at Netflix, which is accused of not doing due diligence to verify the facts of Gadd’s show while applying the “true story” label to it—including going so far as to refer to the events as accurate while speaking in the U.K.’s House Of Commons. The suit also goes after Netflix for failing to anonymize the character of Martha enough to stop people from making associations with Harvey, which they undeniably did extremely quickly once the show came out.

The suit has been filed in California; so far, Netflix hasn’t issued a statement in response.

[via Variety]