The creator of Baby Reindeer has finally addressed the controversy surrounding a major lawsuit filed against the show.
Hitting our screens back in April, Baby Reindeer follows the story of a wannabe comedian whose random act of kindness leaves him a victim to a female stalker who will stop at nothing to fuel her obsession for him.
While the creator of the show, Richard Gadd, tried his best to keep the identities of his characters carefully under wraps despite it loosely being based on alleged real-life events, social media users uncovered the real-life Martha who was less than impressed about how she was allegedly portrayed on the show.
Appearing on a controversial episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey revealed that she would be suing Netflix.
“I will be taking legal action against Richard Gadd and Netflix. We have instructed lawyers in part, but we want to explore all of the options out there. There are a number of people to sue," she said during the interview.
Then just over a month later, it was confirmed by Page Six, that she had in fact filed a lawsuit against the streaming giant at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeking at least $170 million in damages.
“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 [creator and star Richard] Gadd,” the complaint reads.
"Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money, it continues before later highlighting that the “This is a true story” disclaimer at the beginning of the series leads viewers to believe every detail is based on solid facts.
According to the outlet, she is now seeking a minimum of $170 million plus profits earned from the series, since she also claimed that “Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character, and her life."
Addressing the filing for the first time, Gadd filed a counter-suit against the original.
"The Series is a dramatic work," he wrote as per the Guardian. "It is not a documentary or an attempt at realism. While the Series is based on my life and real-life events and is, at its core, emotionally true, it is not a beat-by-beat recounting of the events and emotions I experienced as they transpired. It is fictionalized, and is not intended to portray actual facts.
"Although these stage productions were emotionally true and based on real events in my life, they dramatized people, places, things, and events to tell a story," Gadd continued in the filing. "I did not write the Series as a representation of actual facts about any real person, including Fiona Harvey … Martha Scott is not Fiona Harvey."
The 35-year-old went on to outline some of the obsessive things Harvey had allegedly done, before he eventually reported her to the police in February 2016.
"The cumulative effect of all of Harvey’s actions was enormous," he wrote. "It was exhausting and extremely upsetting to deal with her constant personal interactions in the Hawley Arms, her following me around London including near where I lived, and her relentless and deeply unpleasant communications.
“Overall, it was an incredibly stressful and worrying time, with a sustained period of relentless behavior taking place over several years,” he wrote, also adding that he was willing to testify as a witness if this issue were to go any further.
A Netflix spokesperson also confirmed that the streaming platform intends "to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story."
