Netflix Sued by Baby Reindeer's Alleged Real-Life Martha, Fiona Harvey Files Defamation Lawsuit

justjared.com:

Netflix is facing a lawsuit from the alleged inspiration behind it’s latest hit series Baby Reindeer. Fiona Harvey, who says she is portrayed as Martha (played by Jessica Gunning, pictured here) in the limited series, has filed a defamation lawsuit against the streamer and how they are portraying the character. Keep reading to find out more… In the suit, Fiona claims Netflix is “defaming her through statements in the show that she’s a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison for sexual assault,” THR reports.

According the claim, they “told lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money.” The lawsuit seeks at least $120 million in injunctive relief, including profits from the series, as the claims are for defamation, negligence and violations of right of publicity law. “It never investigated whether Harvey was convicted, a very serious misrepresentation of the facts,” the lawsuits says. “It did nothing to understand the relationship between Gadd and Harvey, if any.

It did nothing to determine whether other facts, including an assault, the alleged stalking or the conviction was accurate.” Baby Reindeer follows struggling comedian Donny Dunn’s (Richard Gadd) warped relationship with his female stalker and the impact it has on him as he is ultimately forced to face a deeply buried trauma.

In the series, Martha is shown as having served time in prison for stalking Dunn and another woman, as well as shown stalking a policeman and sexually assaulting Dunn. Fiona says that she has never been convicted of a crime, and denies stalking or assaulting Richard Gadd.