EXCLUSIVE: In an admission that might go to the center of a $170M Child Reindeer lawsuit, Netflix has conceded that the present’s real-life Martha was not convicted of stalking.
Deadline can reveal that Netflix has acknowledged that Martha — who was recognized as Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey quickly after Child Reindeer premiered — has solely been topic to a courtroom order over her interactions with Richard Gadd, creator of the Emmy-nominated collection billed as a “true story.”
The admission got here in a letter to British Parliament’s Tradition, Media and Sport Committee after a lawmaker questioned proof Netflix equipped MPs throughout a listening to earlier this 12 months. Netflix’s letter has gone unreported till now.
Showing earlier than the committee in Could, Benjamin King, Netflix’s senior UK director of public coverage, mentioned Child Reindeer was a “true story of the horrific abuse” suffered by Gadd “by the hands of a convicted stalker.”
John Nicolson, who was a member of the committee till it was disbanded for the UK election, later wrote to Netflix demanding proof to help King’s declare, on condition that “journalists have to date been unable to discover a document of the conviction to which you referred.”
In a letter of response (full textual content under), King mentioned: “I needed to make clear our understanding that the individual on whom the present relies — who now we have at no level sought to determine — was topic to a courtroom order reasonably than a conviction. “
King added: “The author of Child Reindeer endured severe harassment over many months (because it now appears has been the case for a lot of others), which had a big influence on his wellbeing.”
Netflix’s letter to UK lawmakers
The alleged stalking conviction is on the coronary heart of questions going through Netflix. In Child Reindeer, Martha (performed by Jessica Gunning) is portrayed as pleading responsible to stalking and being sentenced to jail. Since being recognized, Harvey has denied the allegations and sued Netflix for defamation.
In her Los Angeles federal courtroom swimsuit filed in June, Harvey claimed that the darkly comedian collection portrayed her through the Martha character as “a twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to 5 years in jail.” She argued that Child Reinder’s “true story” billing was “the largest lie in tv historical past.”
The emergence of Netflix’s letter to UK lawmakers comes days after Gadd submitted a courtroom assertion in support of Netflix’s efforts to get Harvey’s swimsuit struck out.
One in all Gadd’s central arguments was that Harvey isn’t Martha. “I by no means supposed the collection to determine any actual individual as Martha Scott, together with Harvey,” he mentioned within the 21-page declaration. “Like all characters within the collection, Martha is a fictional character with fictional character traits which might be very totally different than Harvey’s.”
Having mentioned this, the author and actor cataloged how he was “harassed and stalked” by Harvey over a number of years. Detailing emails and extra from Harvey, a lot of that are redacted reveals now within the courtroom docket, Gadd famous that he “obtained a First Occasion Harassment Warning in opposition to Harvey” from UK police in 2016, however he stopped in need of offering proof of a conviction.
“Total, it was an extremely anxious and worrying time, with a sustained interval of relentless behaviour going down over a number of years,” he added. “It’s unattainable to be exhaustive in setting out all of Harvey’s conduct, as there have been so many cases of unwelcome private interplay and makes an attempt to have interaction, in addition to deeply troubling communication.”
In a memorandum accompanying Netflix’s movement to strike, the streamer harassed California’s anti-SLAPP statutes and the road between reality and fiction on the subject of truly stating a declare.
“Harvey’s defamation declare fails as a result of she doesn’t allege a provably false assertion of reality was made about her,” Netflix’s lawyer Latham & Watkins attorneys acknowledged (learn it right here). “Not one of the alleged statements can type a authorized foundation for defamation. In truth, Harvey is incapable of displaying reputational hurt. Her repute was already tarnished by previous information tales detailing her earlier harassment and stalking of public figures. And as a public determine herself, she should allege precise malice.”
Netflix’s submitting additionally included a declaration from Laura Wray, who cataloged allegations of harassment and stalking in opposition to Harvey, a former colleague. It resulted in Wray being granted a courtroom order in opposition to Harvey in 2002.
Earlier this month, Child Reindeer cemented its standing as one of many breakout hits of 2024 by bagging a complete of 11 Emmy nominations, together with for greatest restricted or anthology collection.
