‘Real Martha’ sues Netflix over Baby Reindeer portrayal, seeks $255m

The woman who claims to be the inspiration behind Netflix’s popular dark comedy Baby Reindeer has sued the streaming service for $US170 million ($255 million) in damages.

Fiona Harvey, who previously spoke about the effect the show has had on her on the Piers Morgan Uncensored talk show, says the character of Martha (portrayed by Jessica Gunning) is directly based on her. As a result, she is suing Netflix, citing defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and violations of her right of publicity.

Jessica Gunning as the stalker Martha in a scene from Baby Reindeer.Credit: Netflix

The lawsuit, which was filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California on Thursday (Los Angeles time), alleges that the streaming service spread “brutal lies … out of greed and lust for fame”. Consequently, it alleges that Harvey’s life has been “viciously destroyed”.

“It did nothing to determine whether other facts, including an assault, the alleged stalking or the conviction was accurate. It did nothing to understand whether Gadd’s production, which ruined Harvey was accurate. As a result of Defendants’ lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harvey’s life had been ruined. Simply, Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character and her life,” the lawsuit alleges.

In response to the lawsuit, a Netflix spokesperson said the streamer intends to “defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.” Gadd’s representatives were contacted for comment.

Baby Reindeer topped Netflix charts for weeks after its release in April, reaching around 22 million viewers worldwide by the beginning of May. The show follows aspiring comedian “Donny” (based on and played by real-life comedian Richard Gadd), who is stalked online and in real life by “Martha”. In the show, she is ultimately sentenced to nine months in prison plus a five-year restraining order.

Richard Gadd created and starred in Baby Reindeer.

However, the lawsuit alleges Harvey has never been convicted of any crime and has never been to prison. It also includes a “certificate confirming that Harvey has no convictions, cautions, reprimands, or warnings”.

Gadd is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

At the beginning of the seven-part series, it is labelled a “true story”. However, Harvey’s lawsuit claims that phrase is the “biggest lie in television history”.

“Netflix, a multinational billion dollar entertainment streaming company did literally nothing to confirm the ‘true story’ that Gadd told,” the lawsuit alleges. “It told these lies, and never stopped because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money.”

Speaking in interviews following the release of Baby Reindeer, Gadd said they had been careful to conceal the true identity of the real-life Martha. “We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognise herself,” he told GQ in a recent interview. “What’s been borrowed is an emotional truth, not a fact-by-fact profile of someone.”

However, the lawsuit claims people were able to easily uncover her real identity, with many discussing it at length on platforms like Reddit and TikTok.

“The identification of Harvey as ‘Martha’ was easy and took a matter of days as Harvey’s identity was completely undisguised,” it claims. “Like ‘Martha’, Harvey is a Scottish lawyer living in London, twenty years older than Gadd, was accused of stalking a lawyer in a newspaper article, and who bears an uncanny resemblance to ‘Martha’.”

The suit also notes a particular sexual innuendo used in the show, “hang my curtains”. This exact phrasing was quickly found by internet sleuths in a tweet written by Harvey to Gadd in 2014, thereby further identifying her. Once Harvey was identified, it is alleged she received messages and phone calls from strangers, including death threats.

Harvey is seeking around $255 million from Netflix. This includes about $75 million for actual damages, around $75 million in compensatory damages for “mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and loss of business”, another $75 million “for all profits from Baby Reindeer”, and at least $30 million in punitive damages. All exclude legal fees and costs.

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