Netflix letter reveals major ‘real Baby Reindeer’ admission amid £132m lawsuit
The buzz around Baby Reindeer might have finally died down now, but in real-life, there is plenty of drama still unfolding.
As anyone with a Netflix subscription will recall, the hit series landed on the streaming platform back in April this year and quickly became ridiculously popular around the world.
The star of the show, Richard Gadd, actually lived through the lengthy stalking nightmare which his character, Donny Dunn, tackles in the series and his ordeal directly inspired the thriller.
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Although the Scottish actor urged social media sleuths not to try and track down the real people who the characters in Baby Reindeer were based on, Fiona Harvey soon emerged as the 'real-life Martha'.
The woman, originally from Aberdeenshire, went on to sit down with Piers Morgan in May in a bid to 'set the record straight' and 'have her say' on the saga - before reportedly hiring a New York law firm to take action against Netflix.
Harvey then filed a lawsuit in the Californian federal court against the streaming platform for alleged defamation, negligence and violation of her right of publicity, while seeking damages of a whopping $170 million (£132 million).
The complaint argues ‘brutal lies’ were told about Harvey in the show, while the statement at the start of Baby Reindeer episodes saying ‘this is a true story’ is ‘a lie’ told by both Netflix and Gadd ‘out of greed and lust for fame’.
One of the ‘lies’ which were allegedly told about her in the series is that she is ‘a twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison’.
Last month, the Roth Law Firm shared an exhibit with LADbible which it said proved that Harvey has no convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings - and now, there has been another major update in the lawsuit.
According to Deadline, Netflix acknowledged that the woman who the memorable character was based on does not have any convictions after all.
It came after Benjamin King - who is the streaming platform's senior director of public policy in the UK - appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee back on 8 May to discuss the impact of Baby Reindeer.
He told MPs that the series detailed 'the horrific abuse that writer and protagonist Richard Gadd suffered at the hands of a convicted stalker'.
Former CMS member and SNP politician John Nicolson subsequently demanded that Netflix produced evidence supporting this claim, as 'journalists have thus far been unable to find a record of the conviction to which you referred'.
In a letter addressed to former chairwoman of the committee, Dame Caroline Dinenage, responding to the request, King then clarified his language.
He wrote in the correspondence dated 23 May: "I wanted to clarify our understanding that the person on whom the show is based - who we have at no point sought to identify - was subject to a court order rather than a conviction.
"The writer of Baby Reindeer endured serious harassment over many months (as it now seems has been the case for many others), which had a significant impact on his wellbeing."
The claim that Harvey is a convicted stalker - as depicted in the show by actress Jessica Gunning - is one of the main sticking points in her multi-million pound lawsuit.
Harvey has always denied the allegations surrounding her in the wake of Baby Reindeer, saying in a statement shortly after it's release: "Baby Reindeer is not a true story at all. I am not a convicted stalker."
Topics: Baby Reindeer, Netflix, News, TV and Film, Crime
Olivia Burke