Michael Peterson, the real-life subject of true-crime drama The Staircase, has criticised the Colin Firth series for its portrayal of him and his family.
Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife Kathleen in 2003 after she was discovered dead at the bottom of their staircase, though the conviction was reduced to voluntary manslaughter in 2017. The drama series stars Firth and Toni Colette as Michael and Kathleen respectively.
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and Sophie Brunet's 2004 documentary of the same name was released to chronicle the events. Peterson has now criticised de Lestrade for his involvement as executive producer in the drama, along with its showrunner Antonio Campos.
"[De Lestrade] released his archive to Campos who then created a fictional account of events, most of which trashed me (which I really don't care about) and my children — which I really do care about," Peterson said in a series of emails to Variety.
"There are egregious fabrications and distortions of the truth in the HBO series, well beyond what may be considered 'artistic' license,'" he further alleged.
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While awaiting trial, Peterson allowed de Lestrade and his camera crew to follow him and his family for the original Staircase documentary. However, he now feels betrayed by the filmmaker and has accused him of earning a large sum for selling the rights to his materials to Campos, which de Lestrade denies.
"We didn't sell our story to Campos — were never even consulted or informed that Jean had done this," Peterson continued. "We are the ones who were betrayed, falsely depicted as fighting among ourselves (which NEVER happened), and with made up story lines that denigrate all of us in the eyes of millions."
Related: The Staircase on Netflix: Answering 7 big questions raised by the true-crime doc
Peterson went on to say that he is most upset with de Lestrade, and argued he should have had the family's best interests at heart.
"He is the individual responsible for what happened to us, and while I am sorely pissed at Campos for all the liberties he took with the truth (and for stealing from my book Behind the Staircase — the only source for his prison scenes, and for which I of course was not compensated), I am angrier at Jean who should have had our interests in mind when he sold our story," he added.
De Lestrade has disputed accusations that he didn't inform Peterson about selling materials to Campos, saying he told the family in 2008 that Campos was interested in making a movie about the case.
However, he did say he couldn't recall if he'd told the family about the HBO Max TV series specifically, adding: "If I didn't, I should have."
De Lestrade also disputed a claim that he had received $75,000 for the rights to the docuseries material, valuing the materials he sold to Campos at $9,370.
He has previously expressed his own feelings of betrayal over the series, telling Vanity Fair last month: "I understand if you dramatize. But when you attack the credibility of my work, that's really not acceptable to me. It's alleged that we cut the documentary series in a way to help Peterson's appeal, which is not true.
"If people think what they're watching is true, that’s really damaging for us. I'm really sorry, because I don't want to damage the career of a talented director like Antonio. Because he is a very talented director. But in this case, he did something wrong."
HBO and Campos have not yet responded to de Lestrade's allegations.
The Staircase is available to stream on HBO.
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Social Executive, Entertainment Portfolio After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022, where she wrote across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. Following her internship, Iona continued contributing to the site as a freelance reporter, becoming social executive for the Hearst UK entertainment portfolio in summer 2025. Iona now leads the DS social channels, covering red carpets with stars such as Paul Mescal, Austin Butler, and more.
