Netflix announced on Friday that it would defend against a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed by a Scottish woman who claims the popular worldwide series “Baby Reindeer” defamed her.
Fiona Harvey has filed a complaint in the District Court for the Central District of California, requesting a jury trial and damages of $170 million for “mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of business.”
Comedian Richard Gadd narrates the “true story” of being pursued by a lady who sends him over 40,000 emails and hundreds of hours of voicemails in the Netflix (NFLX) miniseries.
Since its premiere in April, “Baby Reindeer” has led lists of the most watched videos globally, sparking rumors about the characters’ backgrounds and sources of inspiration. Harvey said her life had been ruined last month on the YouTube program “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” She was soon found by internet detectives who dubbed her the “real Martha Scott.”
Netflix and Netflix Worldwide Entertainment are named as defendants in the complaint. Gadd, who plays struggling comedian Donny Dunn in the seven-part miniseries, is also mentioned.
According to the affidavit, by asserting that the story is factual, the defendants and Gadd committed the “biggest deception in television history.”
It claims that in order to profit and “viciously destroy” Harvey’s life—”an innocent woman defamed… at a magnitude and scale without precedent”—Netflix and Gadd lied “out of greed and lust.”
“We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story,” a Netflix spokeswoman stated in a statement to CNN.
Before Netflix commissioned the miniseries in 2021, Gadd originally discussed his encounter with an alleged stalker at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. He described the situation as “messy” and “complicated” in an essay for Netflix, but he still thought the tale should be told.
Gadd and Scott’s actress Jessica Gunning discussed the thriller’s enormous success on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” on Thursday.
“Because it’s so unique, so eccentric, so London, and because it’s such an odd story, a weird traumatic story, it’s just had this sort of almost cross-cultural success that I never expected,” Gadd stated. He hasn’t made any public remarks regarding the court case yet.
Also Read-
Previous to this, Gadd told the UK daily The Guardian that the narrative is “very emotionally true.” However, we also wanted it to remain in the realm of art and safeguard the individuals on whom it is based.
Nevertheless, he was ignored when he asked viewers to stop attempting to discover the true identities of the characters in his story.
According to Harvey’s complaint, Netflix failed to investigate any of the stated facts in the show, such as the fact that Gadd’s alleged stalker received a five-year prison sentence for stalking. Additionally, Gunning’s character is shown in the show abusing Gadd sexually.
Harvey claimed in her complaint that she started receiving communications, including threats of murder, identifying her as Gadd’s purported stalker, just a few days after the show aired.
According to the petition, Harvey is afraid to check the news or leave her house because of the show.
As a result of the lies that have been spread about her, the document states that “she has and continues to experience anxiety, nightmares, panic attacks, shame, depression, nervousness, stomach pains, loss of appetite and fear, extreme stress and sickness.”