The Baby Reindeer creator and star Richard Gadd has detailed the “exhausting and extremely upsetting” stalking he allegedly experienced at the hands of the woman who is suing Netflix over her portrayal in the series.
In a 21-page document filed to a California court on Monday, Gadd described years of “stalking, harassment, abuse and threats” he allegedly suffered from the plaintiff, Fiona Harvey, between 2014 and 2017.
Harvey filed a $170m lawsuit against Netflix in June, in which she accused the streaming giant of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence and violations of her right of publicity.
Harvey is never named in the series, but has publicly identified herself as the inspiration behind Martha Scott, who stalks Gadd’s character in the show. Harvey has denied being a stalker, or that she sent Gadd 41,000 emails, hundreds of voice messages and 106 letters, claiming she only sent him a few emails, one letter by post and about 18 messages on X.
In his court filing, Gadd outlined how Baby Reindeer is a “fictionalised retelling of my emotional journey through several extremely traumatic real experiences”.
“The Series is a dramatic work,” he wrote. “It is not a documentary or an attempt at realism. While the Series is based on my life and real-life events and is, at its core, emotionally true, it is not a beat-by-beat recounting of the events and emotions I experienced as they transpired. It is fictionalized, and is not intended to portray actual facts.”
Baby Reindeer was based on a theatre production the Scottish writer and actor performed at the 2019 Edinburgh festival fringe.
“Although these stage productions were emotionally true and based on real events in my life, they dramatised people, places, things, and events to tell a story,” Gadd wrote in the filing. “I did not write the Series as a representation of actual facts about any real person, including Fiona Harvey … Martha Scott is not Fiona Harvey.”
Gadd described meeting Harvey while he was working at the Hawley Arms pub in London in 2014 and initially thought she was “harmless”. But, he alleged, she “often attempted to touch me in inappropriate (and sometimes sexual) ways” and ignored his requests for her to stop.
After two years of harassment, during which he claims he received “thousands of emails, hundreds of voicemails, and a number of handwritten letters”, which were often “sexually explicit, violent” with “derogatory content, hateful speech, and threats”, Gadd claims he reported Harvey to the police in February 2016.
“The cumulative effect of all of Harvey’s actions was enormous,” he wrote. “It was exhausting and extremely upsetting to deal with her constant personal interactions in the Hawley Arms, her following me around London including near where I lived and her relentless and deeply unpleasant communications.”
Gadd said a First Instance Harassment Warning was issued against Harvey in May 2016, and the emails and voicemails stopped. But he alleged that he subsequently received a handwritten letter from her with a pair of underwear inside in August 2017.
“Overall, it was an incredibly stressful and worrying time, with a sustained period of relentless behavior taking place over several years,” he wrote, adding that he was willing to testify as a witness if called upon.
Harvey denies she assaulted or stalked Gadd, telling Piers Morgan: “I don’t think I sent him anything. There may have been a couple of emails, jokey banter, but that is it.”
Harvey is seeking $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 for punitive damages.
Her lawsuit, which names Netflix as a defendant, accused the streaming giant of doing “literally nothing to confirm the ‘true story’ that Gadd told … it never investigated whether Harvey was convicted, a very serious misrepresentation of the facts. It did nothing to understand the relationship between Gadd and Harvey, if any … As a result of Defendants’ lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harvey’s life had been ruined. Simply, Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character and her life.”
A Netflix spokesperson told the Guardian in June: “We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”
The series is now among Netflix’s top 10 biggest shows ever.
