Baby Reindeer Creator Has Much to Say About $170M Suit

Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd has admitted the stalker in his TV drama was partly inspired by a Scottish woman who sued Netflix for $170 million last month. Responding to Fiona Harvey's defamation lawsuit, Gadd claims to have suffered "stalking, harassment, abuse and threats" at her hands. He says Baby Reindeer, among Netflix's top 10 shows ever, is "not intended to portray actual facts." But it is a "fictionalized retelling of my emotional journey through several extremely traumatic real experiences." He claims Harvey, whom he met while working in a London pub in 2014, harassed him over years. She "often attempted to touch me in inappropriate (and sometimes sexual) ways" and would follow him around the city "including near where I lived," he says.

Harvey's lawsuit claims Netflix and Gadd "destroyed her reputation, her character and her life," portraying her as a twice-convicted stalker, though she's never been convicted of a crime. In Baby Reindeer, character Martha Scott sends Gadd's character 41,000 emails, hundreds of voicemails, and more than 100 letters. Harvey claimed to have sent Gadd only a few emails, one letter, and 18 messages on X, per the Guardian. Gadd says that's a lie. He claims Harvey sent him "thousands of emails, hundreds of voicemails, and a number of handwritten letters" with sexually explicit, violent, and derogatory content, as well as "hateful speech and threats." He says Harvey even sent him a pair of underwear more than a year after she received a police warning.

"Her actions took an extensive toll on my physical and especially my mental well-being" and "I genuinely was worried that she might harm me or my parents," reads the document filed Monday, per Variety. "Overall, it was an incredibly stressful and worrying time, with a sustained period of relentless behavior taking place over several years." Netflix is asking for Harvey's lawsuit to be dismissed on the basis that the depiction of her is substantially true, Variety reports. Alongside Gadd's account, the streaming platform submitted declarations from a former pub manager and a woman named Laura Wray, whom Harvey was accused of stalking decades ago. Wray claims she was harassed over five years and ultimately got the equivalent of a restraining order against Harvey. (More Baby Reindeer stories.)