Woman sues Netflix for $170M for ‘Baby Reindeer’ depiction

(NewsNation) — A Scottish attorney is suing Netflix for at least $170 million for defamation of character and negligence after she claimed the streaming service viciously destroyed her life after she said a character in the series “Baby Reindeer” was linked to her real-life existence.

Fiona Harvey, who lives in England, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Central California and named Netflix as the lone defendant. In the 34-page suit, Harvey also claims intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and violation of her right of publicity with what claims are “brutal lies” included in the hit series.

The show’s creator, Richard Gadd, is not named as a defendant. But the lawsuit says that while Gadd claims that the series is based on the true story of a failing comedian (Gadd) dealing with an alleged stalker. Before filing the lawsuit this week in California, Harvey said that it became clear to her that the stalker, Martha, depicted in the series by actor Jessica Gunning, is her.

The seven-episode series, which began streaming in April, has drawn more than 56 million views on Netflix.

In the suit, Harvey claims the series depicts her as a twice-convicted stalker who later sexually assaulted Gadd. The suit says that Netflix “told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money.”

The suit also alleges Netflix never confirmed that the story Gadd told was actually true. In the series, Gadd plays a fictionalized character of himself named Donny Dunn. The series reveals that over multiple years, Martha sent Gadd more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of emails and more than 350 hours of voicemails.

The lawsuit claims Gadd said in a magazine interview that he went to great lengths to disguise the real person behind the Martha character and that he doubted she would recognize herself in the show.

“What’s been borrowed is an emotional truth,” Gadd said in the interview, “Not a fact-by-fact profile of someone.”

However, Harvey claims soon after the series aired, social media activity identified her as the real-life Martha character. Harvey interacted with Gadd on social media and internet sleuths detected that phrases used in the series were used in their online interactions.

The lawsuit indicates several online platforms, including Reddit and TikTok, had thousands of users identifying and naming Harvey as the real-life Martha.

The suit claims that within days of the series’ airing, Harvey’s identity had become “completely undisguised.”

The lawsuit seeks at least $50 million in actual damages, $50 million in compensatory damages for mental anguish, loss of the enjoyment of life and loss of business, $50 million for the profits of the series, and $20 million in punitive damages.

In a statement issued Thursday, Netflix says it intends to “defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”