"Baby Reindeer"

“Real Martha” sues Netflix for 170 million dollars

Richard Gadd as Donny, Jessica Gunning as Martha in the Netflix series "Baby Reindeer".

(Bild: © 2022 Netflix, Inc.)

A woman from Scotland has sued the streaming provider Netflix for at least 170 million dollars (156 million euros) due to her alleged resemblance to a stalker in the series "Baby Reindeer".

Fiona Harvey initially claimed in public that she had been the model for the character Martha. She had a physical resemblance to her and, like her, was a lawyer in London. She has now filed a lawsuit with the federal court in Los Angeles.

Series makers went too far
In it, she claims that Netflix and the creator of the series, Richard Gadd, went too far by suggesting in the series that she had been sentenced to five years in prison for stalking and harassing a person. She was neither a stalker nor had she been in prison. Thousands of Reddit and Tiktok users couldn't tell the difference and were talking about her as the real Martha, the character's name on the show.

"Defendants told lies"
"Defendants told these lies and never stopped because it was a better story than the true story and better stories made money," the lawsuit states. Netflix said it would vigorously defend itself.

In the series, which purports to be a true story, Martha stalks a man, the author of the series, for years. She sends him thousands of emails, stalks him, lies in wait for him outside his apartment and also harasses his friends and family.