Netflix acknowledged that Martha, who was identified in real life as the Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey Shortly after the series premiered, he has only been the subject of a court order for his interactions with Richard Gadd, creator of the Emmy-nominated series billed as a “true story.”
The admission came in a letter to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, after a lawmaker questioned evidence Netflix provided to MPs during a hearing earlier this year. Netflix’s letter has not been published until now.
Appearing before the committee in May, Benjamin King, senior director of public policy at Netflix in the UK, said Baby Reindeer was a “true story of horrific abuse” suffered by Gadd “at the hands of a convicted stalker.”
John Nicolson, who was a member of the committee until it was disbanded for the UK election, later wrote to Netflix demanding evidence to support King’s claim, given that “journalists have so far been unable to find a record of the conviction you referred to.”
In a response letter, King said: “I wanted to clarify our understanding that the person on whom the program is based, whom we have at no point attempted to identify, was subject to a court order rather than a conviction.”
King added: “The author of Baby Reindeer suffered severe harassment over many months (as it now appears has been the case for many others), which had a significant impact on his wellbeing.”
Fiona Harvey’s lawsuit against Netflix
The alleged stalking conviction is at the center of the questions facing Netflix. In Baby Reindeer, Martha (played by Jessica Gunning) is found guilty of harassment and sentenced to prison. Since being identified, Harvey has denied the allegations and sued Netflix for defamation.
In her lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court filed in June, Harvey claimed the dark comedy series portrayed her through the character of Martha as “a twice-convicted stalker sentenced to five years in prison.” She argued that the presentation of Baby Reindeer as a “true story” was “the biggest lie in the history of television”.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
