“Inventing Anna” may be based on true events, but it heightened the drama according to Jessica Pressler.

The journalist is the inspiration behind the character of Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky) in Netflix’s new show. Like Pressler, Kent is the reporter who writes the exposé on the fake German heiress Anna Delvey. Her character becomes obsessed with writing the article, and even refuses to get off the phone with a source as she goes into labour.

While it’s true she was pregnant while working on the story, Pressler said they definitely exaggerated the details.

READ MORE: Julia Garner Responds To Anna Delvey’s Comments About ‘Inventing Anna’

The writer was close to delivery as she was investigating, but she submitted the story when she was eight months along, not while her water broke.

“The character is very loosely based on me, just to be clear,” Pressler told InStyle. “There are aspects of me in there. I’m sure there are aspects of Shonda [Rhimes]. I’m sure there are aspects of Anna Chlumsky in there… I think that probably some of the writers who worked on the episodes [are in there].” In short, she says: “I think that there are a whole bunch of people’s different experiences embedded in that character.”

The article was published and the rights sold to Rhimes’ Shondaland for an adaptation while Pressler was in the hospital. When she was discharged, she replied to the bevvy of emails apologizing for the delay to which Rhimes write, “Never apologize for having to care for your children” and that “if you were a man, people would be putting you on the cover of Time magazine for taking care of kids and doing any work at all at the same time.”

READ MORE: Anna Delvey Won’t Watch ‘Inventing Anna’ On Netflix: ‘Nothing About’ It ‘Sounds Appealing To Me’

The fact that it seemed believable she was still working while going into labour is something Pressler attributed to the toxic “hustle culture” of America.

She recalled how people thought it was “cool” that she went to interview Delvey at the Rikers Island jail complex while pregnant.

“It’s not cool. It’s actually kind of f**ked up,” she said. “But it’s my job and I have to be working up until the last second. Because that’s what this country is like.”