Fiona Harvey’s lawyers have confirmed they will ask Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd to testify in court and have demanded Netflix cough up thousands of emails and text messages as evidence.
Harvey – who claims she’s the ‘real life’ Martha Scott – is being represented by US lawyer Richard Roth, who recently spilled some juicy details about the upcoming lawsuit on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
ICYMI, Harvey is suing Netflix for a whopping USD $170 million. Her lawyer seems pretty darn confident, telling The Hollywood Reporter he believes Netflix has “wronged” Harvey, and believes the streaming giant “should be ashamed of itself”.
Roth told Piers Morgan he had taken the case because he believes it’s “really just reprehensible when someone says something’s ‘a true story’.” (The possible payout if they win probably sweetens the deal, I imagine.)
Fiona Harvey’s lawyer Richard Roth gave a revealing interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored. (Image: YouTube Piers Morgan Uncensored)
He continued: “If Netflix is going to say this is a true story, then it better well be true. And to do that is irresponsible of them. Fiona Harvey, you’ve had her on your show, she’s been destroyed. She’d been shattered by this. She gets death threats, she doesn’t want to leave her apartment.”
Internet sleuths pinned Harvey down as the possible ‘real-life Martha’ relatively quickly, matching old tweets she’d sent with phrases lifted from the show.
While Gadd and Netflix have never confirmed who the ‘real life Martha’ is – and Gadd publicly asked Baby Reindeer fans to stop looking – Harvey came forward and claimed she inspired the character on Piers Morgan Uncensored in May.
Fiona Harvey’s lawyer reveals ‘smoking gun’ in Baby Reindeer lawsuit
Their case hinges on a small sentence that appears at the beginning of the show, reading: “This is a true story.”
Harvey’s lawyer believes this is their “smoking gun”, and will be looking into whether or not Netflix did its due diligence when making this claim.
“This could be a watershed moment for streaming TV… we’ll have Richard Gadd testify, we’ll have [Fiona Harvey] testify. We’re gonna have a string of people at Netflix testifying as to what they did… why they agreed to the language in the front,” Roth claimed.
To be fair, a disclaimer at the end of the show states certain elements have been “fictionalised for dramatic purposes”. However, not every viewer would have noticed this.
Gadd has repeatedly told journalists the story is a fictionalised version of events, and dismissed that it was a true story – saying he would’ve made a documentary if that was the case – which only helps Harvey’s lawsuit.
“It’s even worse if Richard Gadd says, ‘Well, I don’t really want this to be a true story.’ And Netflix says… ‘We don’t want to listen to you. We’re making it a true story’,” he explained.
“This is far worse than negligence. This is intentional misconduct, if they were actually told, ‘Don’t make it a true story’ and they said it were true,” he added.
Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer has been plagued by controversy since it hit Netflix’s Top 10. (Image: Netflix)
Harvey’s lawyer then referenced how Netflix’s senior UK director of public policy, Benjamin King, stated the Martha character was a “convicted stalker” during a UK Parliament hearing, and what this could mean for their case.
“I also can’t wait to find out [about the executive] who testified in front of Parliament. My goodness, I mean, that’s not a blunder. That is real, real inappropriate conduct [and could have] big repercussions [for] my lawsuit,” Roth said.
“If he goes [back] in front of Parliament and says ‘I lied’ or ‘I was wrong’ or ‘I misspoke’, that’s very problematic for Netflix.”
The legal team has also requested Netflix release thousands of emails and texts allegedly sent to Gadd by Harvey as part of the lawsuit, but claim they have yet to receive them.
“We’ve seen nothing near 41,000 emails… we don’t have it yet. Nor do we believe it exists,” he said.
Can Netflix please make a documentary about the fallout from Baby Reindeer? I know that’s getting way too meta, but I’m really invested and I need to know what happens next.
Feature image: Netflix, YouTube Piers Morgan Uncensored
