The woman who claims to be the inspiration for Netflix’s harassment drama Baby Reindeer is suing the streaming platform for $50 million.
Fiona Harvey, who claims that the main character of Martha is based on her life, denies ever having gone to prison or court, as the character is seen doing.
Harvey alleges that Netflix allowed viewers to track her in real life and connect the dots to her identity, according to legal filings obtained by TMZ.
In the series, Martha is portrayed as a stalker who constantly harasses the protagonist Donny, played by Richard Gadd.
Now it appears a legal showdown has been set between Netflix and the woman who claims her alleged portrayal in Baby Reindeer is false. Pictured: Fiona Harvey
Harvey claims she is being bombarded with hate from around the world for the way Martha is portrayed in the Netflix hit.
She claims she never harassed Gadd, sexually assaulted him, nor was she convicted of stalking.
The Scot alleges that Netflix led viewers to believe that fictional elements of the show were real.
As a result, Harvey is suing the show for defamation, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the right of publicity, among other charges.
She is demanding more than $50 million in damages.
It was previously revealed exclusively in the Mail that the show’s writer, Richard Gadd, who based the premise on his own experiences, told filmmakers Clerkenwell Films that his stalker was never convicted.
Sources indicate that Gadd told Clerkenwell that the harasser was the subject of an “exclusion order”, a civil order and not the same as a criminal conviction for harassment.
This means that the show was always a fictional dramatization, although it came out under a banner that said “this is a true story.”
Richard Gadd, who wrote and starred in the miniseries, photographed in north London.
Harvey says the show, which stars Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning (pictured), makes false claims about her.
Embarrassingly, a Netflix executive, Benjamin King, recently told a House of Commons committee that Gadd had suffered at the hands of “a convicted stalker.”
It is unclear how Clerkenwell Films described the situation to Netflix or what compliance procedures were carried out.
Gadd previously said that Martha’s identity was so well disguised that she wouldn’t recognize herself, but Internet sleuths quickly identified Harvey as Martha.
The actress who plays the character, Jessica Gunning, has a strong resemblance to her.
In a previous interview, Gadd said the situation was “resolved” but did not explain how. And he added: ‘It’s very emotionally true. “I was severely harassed and abused.”
In an interview with Piers Morgan, Harvey denied the harassment allegations, although he admitted that he had met Gadd several times in Camden, north London.
She has been a professor at The Roth Law Firm in New York.
