Following the release of limited series Inventing Anna in February, Rachel Williams a former friend of the “fake heiress” Anna Delvey, has been vocal on her misrepresentation in the series. After penning an article earlier this year she has gone as far as to sue Netflix for invasion of privacy and defamation.
In court documents obtained by E! News this week, the complaint details scenes from the series that depicted her as “a greedy, snobbish, disloyal, dishonest, cowardly, manipulative and opportunistic person.” The lawsuit which was filed on August 29 also claims that she was not “sponging off” the scam artist by “accepting gifts of expensive clothes, jewellery and accessories” and “allowing her to pay for all of their drinks, meals, manicures and saunas.”
“In reality, she never did or said those things,” the lawsuit reads. “Thus, this action is based firmly on statements of fact which are demonstrably false and the attribution of statements that she never made.”
For the uninitiated, Williams was allegedly a close friend of Delvey (aka Anna Sorokin) and was left in Morocco to pay a $60,000 bill on her word credit card. She reportedly helped law enforcement by arresting Delvey and sold her story to a number of media outlets. She was also used as a key witness in convicting the German-born scammer.
Following the premiere of Inventing Anna, Williams claims she was “the subject of thousands of such abusive messages” online.
In a statement made to E! News, Williams’ attorney, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, said, “The reason why we had to file the case is because Netflix used Rachel’s real name and biographical details, and made her out to be a horrible person, which she is not.”
He continued, “The devastating damage to her reputation could have been avoided if only Netflix had used a fictitious name and different details. Why didn’t they do this for her, when they did for so many other characters in the Series? Perhaps the reason was that she had chosen to play for the other team, i.e., HBO.”
The lawsuit reportedly seeks a jury trial, damages and an injunction to have defamatory content removed from the series.
This is an ongoing story so stay tuned.
