Netflix Faces Defamation Suit, Demanded $170M by Real-Life “Baby Reindeer” Character

By Moon Harper

Jun 08, 2024 01:04 AM EDT

A Scottish woman who purportedly inspired the stalker character Martha in the popular Netflix series Baby Reindeer is taking legal action against the streaming service for defamation, negligence, and privacy breaches.

Defamation Lawsuit Against Netflix

Fiona Harvey, who claims to be the woman upon whom Martha's character is based, alleged that Netflix disseminated brutal lies about her to over 50 million viewers globally. Filed in a California court, the lawsuit aims to obtain over $170 million in damages, accusing the series Baby Reindeer of falsely portraying her as a convicted criminal who served time in prison for stalking.

While the initial episode of the acclaimed miniseries asserts that the story is based on real events, the end credits clarify that certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Neither Gadd nor Harvey's real names are employed in the series, and neither Netflix nor Gadd has affirmed that Martha's story was inspired by real-life Harvey's.

The Purported Encounter

Richard Gadd, the creator of the series, penned it based on his purported encounter of being stalked by a woman he encountered at the pub where he was employed and has previously urged fans not to attempt to identify Martha, a character initially introduced in one of his stand-up comedy routines. Gadd himself is not listed as a defendant in Harvey's lawsuit. Netflix has pledged to "vigorously" defend the case and support the show's creator in telling his story freely.

Netflix executive Benjamin King stated that the show was a true story depicting the appalling abuse suffered by the writer and protagonist, Richard Gadd, at the hands of a convicted stalker during his testimony before the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee in Parliament last month. Following this statement, King was challenged by an MP, the SNP's John Nicolson, to provide evidence supporting his claims. Nicolson later remarked that journalists have been unable to find any evidence corroborating Netflix's assertion of a conviction for the woman identified as the inspiration for Martha.

The Real-Life Character's Retribution

According to court documents, Harvey refutes the claim that she sexually assaulted the show's creator and that Netflix failed to take any steps to verify the truthfulness of Gadd's story. The documents allege that Netflix continued to propagate these falsehoods because they created a more compelling narrative than the truth and were making more money.

In one scene of the series, the Martha character is depicted as sexually assaulting the show's protagonist along a canal at night. Richard Roth, a New York-based lawyer representing Harvey, told the BBC that there was no doubt Harvey's identity was used for the plot of Baby Reindeer, asserting that he had incontrovertible documentary evidence proving that his client had never been convicted of a crime, backed by a photograph of a background check and a certificate indicating no criminal convictions on Harvey's record. Speaking to BBC News on Thursday, Harvey also agreed that her team would win the case.

Harvey, residing in the U.K., states that since the series was released in April, she has received numerous death threats that instilled fear in her, making her highly secluded and isolated, as outlined in the lawsuit.

During a nearly hour-long interview with Piers Morgan last month, Harvey acknowledged that she had known Gadd during his tenure at a pub in London. However, she refuted the portrayal of herself as resembling Martha in the series, who is depicted as sending Gadd's character 41,000 emails and leaving 350 hours of voicemail messages. While Harvey denied sending him anything other than a couple of "jokey banter" emails, some real comments she made to Gadd, including a 2014 tweet, are incorporated into the show's dialogue.