The woman who claims to be the inspiration behind the stalker Martha Scott in the hit Netflix series "Baby Reindeer" has filed a lawsuit against the streaming service.
Fiona Harvey is seeking $170 million in damages, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence and violations of her right of publicity.
The suit follows the phenomenal success of this year's series, starring 35-year-old Scottish writer and actor Richard Gadd, and is based on his personal experiences with a fan he has presented as a stalker who inundated him with some 41,000 emails, letters and hundreds of voice messages. She's played by his co-star Jessica Gunning.
Harvey has claimed publicly that the character is based on her, but she denies being a stalker — and denies sending him messages and calling him.
"I don't think I sent him anything. There may have been a couple of emails with jokey banter, but that is it, Harvey told host Piers Morgan recently in an interview.
Gadd has admitted in an interview with the Guardian that he "tweaked" his experiences "slightly to create dramatic climaxes."
It's "very emotionally true, obviously," he said. "I was severely stalked and severely abused. But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people it's based on," he said.
Netflix has vowed to fight the suit.
"We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story," a spokesperson for the streaming giant told the Guardian.
Harvey's lawsuit accuses the company of doing nothing to confirm the "true story" that Gadd told or understand the relationship between Gadd and Harvey, if any.
Furthermore, the "defendants told these lies and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money," the lawsuit argued.
"Baby Reindeer" was a major winner at the Gotham TV Awards in New York this week and is expected to be a frontrunner when Emmy nominations are announced in July.
Harvey maintains that "Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character, and her life."
