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- A woman who claims to be the stalker character in the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer broke her silence in an interview with Piers Morgan.
- Fiona Harvey appeared on Morgan's Uncensored to dispute the show's portrayal of her, which she claims led to severe online harassment and death threats.
- Harvey admits to sending jokey banter emails and a letter and is considering legal action against Gadd and Netflix.
"I'm not a stalker. I've not been to jail. I've not got injunctions."
These are the words of Fiona Harvey, a woman who claims to be the stalker character in the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer.
The show is based on the true story of comedian Richard Gadd, who is being stalked by an older woman named Martha.
Harvey broke her silence in an interview with Piers Morgan to dispute the show's portrayal of her, which she claims led to severe online harassment and death threats.
Although Harvey admitted that she had never watched the show - and had only heard about a few of the scenes - she asserted that the show was a work of fiction, with only a few facts being accurate.
"It's a work of fiction, it's a work of hyperbole. And there are two true facts in that. His name is Richard Gadd, and he worked as a jobbing barman on benefits in the Holy Arms. And we met two or three times. Those are the only three facts," said Harvey.
About their meeting, the 58-year-old said Gadd had never given her a cup of tea as depicted in the show and claimed that he had interrupted her conversation with another barman.
READ | From real-life nightmare to menacing series: The chilling truth behind Netflix's Baby Reindeer
"He interrupted a conversation. There was another barman there. And he said, oh, you're Scottish, and basically commandeered the conversation," she said.
Harvey further denied that Gadd had followed her home and peered through her window, or that she had turned up at his house, attacked his ex-girlfriend, or contacted his parents or threatened them.
She did, however, admit: "I had a toy reindeer. And he shaved his head. That bit is true. And there were reindeer in the show because it was Christmas time or something. It was a joke."
Morgan then grilled Harvey on whether she sent Gadd 41 000 emails, 350 voice messages, 744 tweets and 166 letters.
She initially denied contacting him, before confessing to "jokey banter emails", "18 tweet or 14 tweets", and sending him only one letter.
Harvey shared that she is dating a lawyer and is considering legal action against Gadd, Netflix and the Daily Mail for defamation.
"He's making money out of untrue facts. He's been the ultimate misogynist," she added.
"I think he's psychotic, and I think that anyone going along, being in that play and doing this to somebody, I find the behaviour outrageous."
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
Gadd has not officially disclosed the inspiration behind the character Martha, and he has requested that fans refrain from speculating about the real-life counterparts of his characters.
In an Instagram story posted on 22 April, Gadd wrote: "People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation. Please don't speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That's not the point of our show," per a screenshot taken by Today.
In an interview with Variety after the show's release, Gadd said Baby Reindeer was "all emotionally 100% true."
"It's all borrowed from instances that happened to me and real people that I met. But of course, you can't do the exact truth for both legal and artistic reasons. I mean there's certain protections, you can't just copy somebody else's life and name and put it onto television," he said.
"And obviously, we were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don't want to make their lives more difficult. So you have to change things to protect yourself and protect other people."
