Richard Gadd is breaking his silence on Fiona Harvey’s lawsuit, E News reports.
The Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd spoke out after his alleged real-life stalker sued Netflix for $170 million over claims the show was “the biggest lie in television history.”
In a court filing obtained by E! News July 30, Richard Gadd detailed meeting Harvey at the Hawley Arms pub where he worked in 2014. Following the encounter, he alleged that the 58-year-old began stalking and harassing him for three years, claiming that the behavior eventually escalated into thousands of emails and voicemails, as well as “inappropriate” and “handsy” touches.
“Nothing deterred her,” Richard Gadd claimed in the filing, “and I remember long shifts where I would sit out on the balcony or in the basement for hours waiting for her to leave.”
But the 35-year-old argued that the hit Netflix series wasn’t necessarily about recounting his experience with Harvey, explaining that his intention was to tell an “emotionally true” story.
“My personal struggles with my sexual identity, and experiences with sexual abuse, harassment, and stalking, inspired me to write and star in the theatre version of Baby Reindeer,” Gadd claimed in the document, “and subsequently, the Series.”
Noting that the show is “not a documentary or an attempt at realism,” the filing added, “It is not a beat-by-beat recounting of the events and emotions I experienced as they transpired.”
“It is fictionalized,” his statement continued, “and is not intended to portray actual facts.”
Additionally, the comedian alleged that none of the characters in Baby Reindeer, which follows Donny (played by Gadd) as he deals with a female stalker named Martha (Jessica Gunning) and, ultimately, his buried trauma, are depicting real people.
“I intentionally used characters that did not share the actual names of any persons from my life and wrote fictionalized dialogue and scenes,” Gadd claimed. “Each of the characters from the Series has some imagined personality traits and events that I specifically selected to make them useful as dramatic devices.”
Gadd’s response arrives less than two months after Harvey—who claimed to be the real-life inspiration behind the show’s Martha character—accused Netflix and Gadd of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence and violations of right of publicity in her $170 million lawsuit.
Along with claiming Gadd “lied” in the series in order to “attract more viewers, get more attention, to make more money, and to viciously destroy” her life, Harvey alleged that Netflix never took action to verify his allegations against her, which she said included being convicted and serving prison time for stalking, stalking Gadd for five years and physically attacking Gadd in a bar.
“The real Martha is reasonably understood by all viewers to have done all of these monstrous things,” read her filing, obtained by E! News, “because Netflix and Gadd stated this was true.”
Harvey’s statement referred to the series’ pilot note, “This is a true story.” In addition to that note, the credits of each episode feature text reading, “This program is based on real events: however certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.”
When reached for comment on the lawsuit, Netflix told E! News, “We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”