‘Baby Reindeer’ Creator Richard Gadd Breaks Silence on Fiona Harvey’s Lawsuit

Baby Reindeer creator and star Richard Gadd has responded to Fiona Harvey‘s lawsuit against Netflix. After Harvey sued the streaming platform over her alleged portrayal as the character Martha Scott, Gadd insisted that the miniseries and his one-man show are “fictionalized,” according to a new court filing.

“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 [sic],” the actor and writer wrote in the court documents. “I did not write the series as a representation of actual facts about any real person, including Fiona Harvey.”

Gadd added, “Martha Scott is not Fiona Harvey” and went on to note that his “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, and subsequently, the series.”

“The series is a dramatic work,” he explained in the court documents. “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.”

In the miniseries, Gadd plays Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian who is stalked and harassed by a woman named Martha Scott. During episode 1, Donny meets Martha at the bar he works at. After offering her a free cup of tea, Martha latches onto Donny and visits him at the bar every night. Soon, she becomes obsessed with him. As time goes on, Martha follows him around and even physically assaults his girlfriend at one point. While coming to terms with his underlying personal struggles, regarding his sexuality and being raped in the past, Donny finally reports Martha to the police.

Since the show is based on true events from Gadd’s life, Harvey spoke out against him and claimed that she has faced criticism because of Baby Reindeer.

According to his new court filing, Gadd pointed out that he “used my experiences to craft the Martha character specifically to both feed into Donny’s desperate need for attention and self-esteem issues and challenge him in ways that make him confront his past abuse and its effects on him.”

Although he insisted that the series is not a representation of the real-life Harvey, Gadd pointed out that her previous alleged harassment of him included “thousands of emails, hundreds of voicemails, and a number of handwritten letters,” many of which were “sexually explicit, violent” with “derogatory content, hateful speech, and threats.”

“The cumulative effect of all of Harvey’s actions was enormous,” he claimed in the court docs. “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 concluded that this was “an incredibly stressful and worrying time” dealing with Harvey’s alleged harassment.

If you or anyone you know has been sexually abused, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing, recovering and more.