EXCLUSIVE: Richard Roth, the lawyer for Fiona Harvey, Baby Reindeer‘s real-life Martha, has responded to the show’s success at the Emmy Awards.
In a statement to Deadline, Roth said: “The Emmy wins confirm that Netflix’s strategy worked, going for the higher revenues and awards while leaving honesty and transparency behind.”
Roth is pursuing a $170M defamation lawsuit against Netflix, claiming that the darkly comic hit series, billed as a “true story,” was “the biggest lie in television history.”
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They are suing by claiming Baby Reindeer portrayed Harvey, via the Martha character, as “a twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison.” Netflix has conceded that Harvey has never been convicted of stalking. A trial is set for 2025.
Roth’s comments follow a staunch defense of the show from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who has been in London speaking at a Royal Television Society event.
Sarandos said repeatedly that Baby Reindeer is creator Richard Gadd’s “true story” and that the series “is not a documentary, there are elements that are dramatized.”
He added that the debate over duty of care standards on Baby Reindeer is a uniquely British preoccupation. The debate is “not happening anywhere else in the world,” he argued.
Netflix has also doubled down on its relationship with Gadd, signing a multi-year first-look deal with the Scottish writer and performer for scripted series.
The agreement was unveiled on the heels of Baby Reindeer’s standout performance at the Emmys where it dominated the longform field with six wins, including Outstanding Limited Series.
In July, Gadd submitted a court statement in support of Netflix’s efforts to get Harvey’s suit struck out. One of Gadd’s central arguments was that Harvey is not Martha. “Like all characters in the series, Martha is a fictional character with fictional personality traits that are very different than Harvey’s.”
Having said this, the writer and actor catalogued how he was “harassed and stalked” by Harvey over several years.
Detailing emails and more from Harvey, many of which are redacted exhibits now in the court docket, Gadd noted that he “obtained a First Instance Harassment Warning against Harvey” from UK police in 2016. “Overall, it was an incredibly stressful and worrying time, with a sustained period of relentless behaviour taking place over several years,” he added.