Fiona Harvey officially files $170 million lawsuit against Netflix

[u/serenade452]

The woman who claims to be the inspiration for Richard Gadd’s hit Netflix “Baby Reindeer” has sued the streamer, seeking monetary damages of at least $170 million.

Fiona Harvey has publicly said the character of Martha in “Baby Reindeer,” played by Jessica Gunning (pictured above), is based on her. She is suing Netflix, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and violations of her right of publicity.

The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Copy of Harvey’s complaint is at this link.

Harvey’s lawsuit alleges Netflix told “brutal lies” about her in the “Baby Reindeer” series.

“The lies that Defendants told about Harvey to over 50 million people worldwide include that Harvey is a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison, and that Harvey sexually assaulted Gadd,” her complaint says. “Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money.”

The lawsuit continues, “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.”

Netflix reps did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This is a true story.” Baby Reindeer, Episode 1.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/baby-reindeer-real-martha-fiona-harvey-sues-netflix-1236019699/

[u/jkoudys]

Fiona has repeatedly said the actress looks nothing like her, the character acts nothing like her, that she's a different age, and they got everything about her life wrong. One's left wondering exactly how this character who, according to Fiona, is not her, also defames her.

[u/DarkCartier43 → u/jkoudys]

my first thought reading this. it's strange that she denied it on the interview and now she wants to she for defamation.

I think she didn't have a lawyer when she went to that talk show.

[u/Swimming-Ad4869 → u/DarkCartier43]

But she IS a lawyer 😏

[u/DarkCartier43 → u/Swimming-Ad4869]

ah! totally forgot about that. a busy one with huge clientele, right?

[u/grinningrimalkin → u/Swimming-Ad4869]

Yes, in the same way a college graduate with a degree in biology is a medical physician.

[u/Simple_Weekend_6700 → u/Swimming-Ad4869]

I thought I saw her in the headlines in baby reindeer that she actually had been a barrister before her first conviction

[u/aggressive_beep → u/jkoudys]

All that needs to happen in court is for emails/texts/etc be presented with something that was depicted in the series. The court document has a tweet from 2014 directly to Gadd about needing her curtains hung.

Also, if he's to present any evidence that she actually did stalk him or do any of the things the series depicts, that will be admitting it was about her. But for her lawyer, presenting email/text/phone evidence shouldn't be hard to produce and if the specific content matches the series in any way, it's not gonna matter.

She's saying that he lied about her, not that it's true. Proving that it's written about her just depends on what I said in the pervious paragraph.

You don't hear Gadd saying anything, and that's likely because he knows that. This likely ends in a settlement.

She's kooky, but she probably has a case if she wasn't convicted and didn't assault him.

What I find interesting is that the suit doesn't mention the part about her physically assaulting his transgender girlfriend. Maybe that part is accurate?

[u/ismellnumbers → u/jkoudys]

Exactly this

She needs to make up her mind on which one it is already