In an Interview With Piers Morgan Fiona Harvey Calls Richard Gadd Both Crazy and a Liar

If you go into Netflix's Baby Reindeer with absolutely no information about the series, you will conclude that this is a harrowing story about being stalked. It centers around Donny, played by Richard Gadd the real-life victim in this story, and a woman who enters his life crying and leaves the same way. Much more unfolds in this series while we follow Donny as he becomes increasingly more self-aware, eventually landing on his biggest problem: self-loathing.

We spend time with his stalker Martha (Jessica Gunning) only through the eyes of Donny. Because of this, our opinions of Martha shift along with Donny's. One minute we are deeply sympathetic towards her struggles and the next, we are horrified and enraged by her actions. It's a rollercoaster of emotions. This was inspired by Gadd's own experiences, so it isn't surprising that his actual stalker has publicly commented about the show. Here's what we know about the real-life Martha from Baby Reindeer.

"I was now in the fourth year of being stalked, by a woman, whose only skill greater than her ability to harass was her ability to evade the law," said Baby Reindeer creator and star Richard Gadd about his actual life. It was only a matter of time before the very real people involved in Gadd's series popped up to comment on how they were being portrayed. Obviously the most outspoken response came from "Martha" herself.

In an interview with The Daily Mail, a woman claiming to be the real-life Martha had much to say about how she came across in the popular Netflix show. The woman didn't identify herself but said that Baby Reindeer is based on her. She went on to accuse Gadd of having "main character syndrome" and even threatened to sue the Scottish comic.

The alleged real-life Martha also turned the tables on Gadd by suggesting he's the one who is actually stalking her. "I'm not writing shows about him or promoting them in the media, am I," she asked. "If he wanted me to be properly anonymous, he could have done so. Gadd should leave me alone."

In the show, the character Martha had a history of stalking. After doing some digging, Gadd's character discovers a newspaper story with a disturbing headline that reads Sick Stalker Torments Barrister's Deaf Child. This proved to be a context clue for online detectives who were determined to out the real Martha, despite Gadd asking people to leave well enough alone.

According to The Sun U.K., Martha might be a woman named Fiona Harvey who "came into contact with the late Glasgow MP Jimmy Wray, who died aged 78 in 2013, and his solicitor wife Laura, 62, when she was a former Labour Party member." Back in 1997, Laura gave Harvey a trainee role at the law firm McPhail Lawrence Partnership but soon fired her after she began acting quite strangely. Laura said she was incapable of behaving herself.

This led to Harvey harassing Laura who was on the receiving end of "disturbing phone calls and an uninvited visit at her home, and was told, 'I’m going to get you.'" Harvey was handed down an interim interdict and was told to stop contacting Laura and her husband. She has also been accused of harassing former First Minister Donald Dewar. Laura told people she was his special advisor. This is similar to the Baby Reindeer character Martha who claimed to have advised former Prime Minister David Cameron.

On May 9, 2024, Harvey was a guest on Piers Morgan: Uncensored. She chose to come on his show because in her opinion, he is a trustworthy reporter. Several times throughout their conversation, Harvey calls both Netflix and Gadd a liar. Harvey referenced how she has been victimized by internet detectives who beyond tracking her down, have evidently made death threats against her. The whole thing has left her traumatized and barely able to read the news.

She describes Baby Reindeer as a "work of fiction and hyperbole" and even suggests that it was Gadd who was obsessed with her. The first time they met at the Holy Arms bar where he was working, Harvey claimed he interrupted her conversation and wouldn't leave her alone. Morgan addressed various moments in the series and allowed Harvey to respond to each one. For example on the show, Martha never paid for drinks but Harvey said she always did.

The information Morgan kept returning to was the massive amount of communication coming from Martha and in particular, the over 41,000 emails she sent. When asked about that, Harvey said she sent "maybe a couple of emails," and might have tweeted at Gadd but she never messaged him on Facebook. Morgan reminded Harvey that this information would be easily proven if she decided to sue Netflix and Gadd, which Harvey said she plans to do. That did not bother her as she continued to double and triple down on the fact that she never sent that many.

It's difficult to not judge Harvey who bears the weight of the show itself, as well as the reactions of those who watched it. Everything she says sounds like a lie, and you find yourself wishing you could be a fly on the wall of the Netflix legal team as they poured over this information. That's the thing, nothing would get by them so it stands to reason this could be true. Plus it's hard to believe Harvey when she drops information like, she has six email accounts and four cell phones because she likes to keep people separate.