Anna Delvey’s Former Friend Rachel Williams Sues Netflix Over Inventing Anna Depiction

Rachel Williams, former friend of fake heiress Anna Delvey, filed a lawsuit against Netflix for defamation due to the way she was portrayed in the limited series Inventing Anna.

By Tamantha Gunn Aug 30, 2022 4:57 PMTags
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Rachel Williams, one of the women who was scammed out of money by fake heiress Anna Delvey, is ready to have her day in court.

According to court documents obtained by E! News, Williams is suing Netflix for false light invasion of privacy and defamation for the way they depicted her in the limited series Inventing Anna, which premiered on the streaming giant on Feb. 11.

The complaint, which was filed on Aug. 29, details scenes from the Shonda Rhimes-created series that Williams alleges portray her in an inaccurate manner, including depicting her as "a greedy, snobbish, disloyal, dishonest, cowardly, manipulative and opportunistic person."

The suit also alleges that Williams was not "sponging off" Delvey, also known as Anna Sorokin, by "accepting gifts of expensive clothes, jewelry and accessories" or "allowing her to pay for all of their drinks, meals, manicures and saunas."

Williams also cited scenes from the series in which her character (played by Katie Lowes) abandoned Delvey (Julia Garner) during a trip to Morocco while she was "alone and in trouble" as untrue. Williams further denied that she was "lying to friends by concealing that she helped the police arrest" as depicted in the series.

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"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."

Due to the popularity of Inventing Anna, Williams said in the complaint that she was "the subject of thousands of such abusive messages" from people online. 

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

In a statement 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."

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Rufus-Isaacs added, "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 seeks a jury trial, as well as unspecified damages and an injunction to have the alleged defamatory material involving Williams edited out of Inventing Anna.

E! News has reached out to Netflix and Delvey's attorney but has not heard back.

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