Fiona Harvey, the woman who previously came forward as the inspiration for the deranged stalker in Netflix’s surprise hit Baby Reindeer, has now hit the streaming platform with a defamation lawsuit.
The suit, filed today in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, seeks damages for $170 million. This includes “actual damages” of $50 million, compensatory damages of $50 million, show profits of $50 million, and punitive damages of $20 million.
Somewhat surprisingly, Richard Gadd, who created and starred in the series based on his own experience of being stalked, is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
Harvey is said to be the inspiration for the character known as Martha, played by Jessica Gunning in Baby Reindeer. The series follows a struggling comedian named Donny, played by Gadd, after Martha meets him at the bar where he works and becomes fixated on him. According to the series, the stalker sent Gadd/Donny 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters, and 350 hours of voicemails over the course of multiple years, many of which were used in Baby Reindeer.
But the lawsuit alleges Netflix did “literally nothing to confirm the ‘true story’ that Gadd told.” The lawsuit specifically points to a line of text at the beginning of the first episode of Baby Reindeer, which reads, “this is a true story,” calling it “the biggest lie in television history.”
“It is a lie told by Netflix and the show’s creator, Richard Gadd, out of greed and lust for fame; a lie designed to attract more viewers, get more attention, to make more money, and to viciously destroy the life of Plaintiff, Fiona Harvey – an innocent woman defamed by Netflix and Richard Gadd at a magnitude and scale without precedent,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also claims that Harvey has never been convicted of a crime. In the series, Martha is eventually arrested, and also had prior legal trouble over her stalking a policeman.
Gadd has said in multiple interviews and social media posts that he didn’t want viewers to dig up the real-life identity of Martha and other people depicted on the show. Netflix, meanwhile, said in a recent U.K. Parliament hearing that it took “every reasonable precaution” to protect the identities of the show’s real-life subjects. The lawsuit, however, notes that internet sleuths quickly dug up Harvey online after the show’s release.
“Popular internet forums such as Redditt (sic) and TikTok had thousands of users identifying and discussing Harvey as the real ‘Martha,’ ” the lawsuit says. “The identification of Harvey as ‘Martha’ was easy and took a matter of days as Harvey’s identity was completely undisguised.”
Harvey herself would later come forward, giving an interview to Piers Morgan in which she denied the events of the series.
“As a result of Defendants’ lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harvey’s life had been ruined,” the suit reads. “Simply, Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character and her life.”
Baby Reindeer, based on Gadd’s one-man show, quickly gained international prominence after its debut on Netflix in April, flying to the top of Netflix’s “Top 10” chart. It’s garnered critical acclaim as well, and IGN gave it a 9/10 in our review, calling it “a complicated exploration of complex subject matter that pulls no punches and raises the bar for Netflix originals.”
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
