Netflix is being sued by the real Rachel Williams over Inventing Anna series

Netflix is being sued by the real Rachel Williams for her depiction in the series Inventing Anna. At the time of the show’s release, Rachel had slated Netflix for how it portrayed her and for how it showed Anna’s story in general.

Inventing Anna on Netflix is a dramatised version of the story of New York’s fake heiress, Anna Delvey. She scammed banks, hotels, New York’s elite and even her own friends out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anna pretended to be an heiress with a $60million family fortune, in order to try to convince investors and banks to loan her money for her grand business plan, the Anna Delvey Foundation.

In the show, Rachel is introduced as working for Vanity Fair and being a friend of Anna’s – and that much about her is true. From then, it’s safe to say she comes across as pretty nasty, and looks like she is enjoying sponging off Anna whilst she can. She then abandons her when she finds out Anna Delvey is really Anna Sorokin and the whole rich heiress thing was all a lie. Rachel was scammed by Anna, putting $62k on her personal card when Anna’s was declined on a trip to Morocco – which did happen in real life.

via Netflix

According to reports, former photo editor and journalist Rachel Williams filed the lawsuit on Monday 29th August and has called her portrayal in the Netflix series “unethical, greedy, snobbish and disloyal.” In documents obtained by Variety, Williams’ attorney claimed since Inventing Anna’s release, Williams has been subjected to “a torrent” of backlash online. “This action will show that Netflix made a deliberate decision for dramatic purposes to show Williams doing or saying things in the series which portray her as a greedy, snobbish, disloyal, dishonest, cowardly, manipulative and opportunistic person,” the suit read.

In a statement, Rachel Williams’ attorney, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, said: “If you want to base a character on a real person, and you want to make them a baddie, don’t use their real name. I wish creatives would understand that. If they want to make an unpleasant character, they can’t use a real person’s name unless everything they say is absolutely gospel.”

via Instagram

Anna herself has reacted to the news, posting an Instagram story saying that Netflix “knows where to find me” should it want her to testify that the depiction of Rachel was accurate.

Netflix has not commented.

Inventing Anna is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• What the cast of Inventing Anna look like compared to the real life people they portray

• ‘Shocking and dangerous’: The real Rachel has slated Netflix for portrayal in Inventing Anna

• ‘Fictionalised and unappealing’: What the real Anna Delvey has said about Inventing Anna