A judge has ruled that Netflix lied to viewers about ‘Baby Reindeer’ being a “true story”
Baby Reindeer was the Netflix series on everyone’s lips earlier this year, but chaos quickly ensued when viewers identified the woman who inspired the ‘real Martha’ – the stalker who terrorises Richard Gadd’s character in the show. At the beginning of the series, a title card explaining that the show was based on a “true story” was shown.
In the series, Gadd, a struggling stand-up comedian and barman, meets Martha while working in the Hawley Arms. She soon makes regular trips to the bar to see him before sending him countless emails and texts. The show includes these messages on screen, which viewers used to find Tweets posted during the time the show was set by a woman named Fiona Harvey.
It was rather easy to find the real Martha online, and social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit were suddenly flooded with screenshots and evidence all pointing towards Harvey as ‘the real Martha’.
However, in the show, Martha sexually assaults Gadd’s character, Donny, and even ends up in prison. In the wake of the show’s popularity, Harvey was interviewed by Piers Morgan, and she claimed that the show made false claims about her, stating that she barely knew Gadd.
Despite contradicting herself several times, she asserted that she did not commit any of the crimes that the show depicted and she was interested in suing Netflix.
She eventually filed a lawsuit against the streaming service, highlighting that they falsely advertised the show as “based on a true story.” In her lawsuit, she claims this “is the biggest lie in television history,” told “out of greed and lust for fame; a lie designed to attract more viewers, get more attention, to make more money.”
However, a judge has now ruled that Netflix incorrectly labeled the series as a true story—something Gadd was reportedly uncomfortable with but the streamer was adamant about doing—and Harvey is allowed to pursue her lawsuit further.
While Gadd maintains that Harvey did stalk him and some of Martha’s actions really were carried out by Harvey, the judge believes that the show doesn’t do anything to prevent people from believing things that certainly didn’t happen, such as his stalker ending up in prison.
The judge said: “There is a major difference between stalking and being convicted of stalking in a court of law. Likewise, there are major differences between inappropriate touching and sexual assault, as well as between shoving and gouging another’s eyes. While plaintiff’s purported actions are reprehensible, Defendants’ statements are of a worse degree and could produce a different effect in the mind of a viewer.”
They added, “The series states that Plaintiff is a convicted criminal who sexually and violently assaulted Gadd. These statements may rise to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct.”
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