'Baby Reindeer': Woman claiming to be real-life Martha sues Netflix for $170M

The woman who claims to be the inspiration for Martha Scott in Netflix's hit series 'Baby Reindeer' has filed a $170M lawsuit against the streaming service. On June 6, Fiona Harvey filed the suit in the US District Court for the Central District of California, accusing Netflix of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, and violating her right of publicity.

Harvey is seeking at least $50M for actual damages, $50M in compensatory damages for “mental anguish, loss of enjoyment, and loss of business,” $50M for “all profits from ‘Baby Reindeer,’” and $20M in punitive damages.

‘Baby Reindeer’ follows Gadd’s Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian who encounters Martha at the bar where he works. Martha is revealed to be a dangerous serial stalker who sent him over 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters, and 350 hours of voicemails over several years.

The lawsuit alleges Netflix ‘did literally nothing’ to verify the statements in the series, which is presented as a true story, regarding Harvey.

‘It never investigated whether Harvey was convicted, a very serious misrepresentation of the facts,’ the complaint states.

‘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,’ the complaint states.

The series portrays Martha as a convicted criminal who spent five years in prison for stalking Gadd and another woman. She is also depicted as stalking a policeman and sexually assaulting Gadd.

Harvey asserts she has never been convicted of any crime and denies stalking or assaulting Gadd, physically or sexually.

Notably, Harvey’s real name wasn’t used in the series, which might complicate proving defamation.

This complaint follows Netflix settling a defamation lawsuit filed by Linda Fairstein, an ex-prosecutor who sued over her portrayal in ‘When They See Us.’ As part of the settlement, Netflix agreed to move a disclaimer from the end credits to the beginning of each episode.

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