5 key Netflix Baby Reindeer facts disputed by real ‘stalker’ Fiona Harvey – from free tea to girlfriend attack
BABY Reindeer’s alleged real life stalker is disputing five key facts presented in the Netflix show.
Fiona Harvey – who claims to be the inspiration for Martha – spoke to Piers Morgan in her first TV interview, in which she blasted the streaming platform and series creator Richard Gadd.
The show purports to detail Gadd’s experiences of being stalked and sexually harassed.
However, Harvey, 58, claims the 34-year-old comedian is a “psychotic misogynist” and the show is “completely untrue” – though also admitted to having not watched it.
The law graduate is not identified in the seven-part programme, but internet sleuths tracked her down within hours of its release last month.
She told Morgan’s Uncensored YouTube show she felt she had no choice but to come forward as she was being harassed by trolls and receiving death threats.
At the start of each episode, Baby Reindeer claims to be a true story – but Harvey is adamant it is entirely fictional.
Martha – played by actress Jessica Gunning – is seen meeting barman Donny Dunn – played by Gadd himself – after going into the pub where he works in Camden, North West London.
She is upset and claims she can’t afford a drink, so he gives her a tea free of charge.
However, Harvey told Morgan this was not the case, and in fact she had gone into the pub to have a meal with friends and had ordered a lemonade.
She said: “No, that’s not correct. He didn’t offer me a cup of tea… I was in for a meal with a drink of lemonade, and I was very, very hungry. I’m diabetic, so, very hungry. So that’s true.”
Morgan asked: “And did you talk to him?”
She responded: “And he interrupted a conversation… he said, ‘Oh, you’re Scottish’, and basically commandeered the conversation. You know, I was talking to somebody. It’s pretty rich. Interrupt. So he seemed to be obsessed with me from that moment onwards.”
Morgan told her Netflix said it had evidence of 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemails, 744 tweets, 48 Facebook messages and 106 letters sent by the real Martha to Gadd.
However, Harvey denied this, claiming she had sent around 10 emails and one letter, and suggested if there was any audio footage of her then Gadd had possibly recorded her in the pub.
Referring to the emails, she said: “That’s simply not true. If somebody was sending somebody 41,000 emails or something, they’d be doing how many a day? Lots.”
Morgan replied: “Well, it’d be obsessive.”
The show also sees Martha attack Donny’s girlfriend Teri – but Harvey again refuted this, saying she was not aware Gadd had a girlfriend and believed he was gay.
“I have never been to his house or attacked any girlfriend or anything like that,” she said.
In the final episode, Martha is seen in tears in court pleading guilty to a number of charges related to her harassment of Donny, and is jailed for nine months.
However, Harvey said she has never been convicted of anything, including in relation to Gadd.
She said: “That’s completely untrue. Very, very defamatory to me, very career damaging. And I wanted to rebut that completely on this show. I’m not a stalker.
“I’ve not been to jail, I’ve not got injunctions, interdicts. This is just complete nonsense.”
Baby Reindeer presents Martha as being obsessed with Gadd and in love with him.
But she said it was nothing of the sort, and that any apparent sexual advances she made towards him were innuendo and that he had propositioned her for sex and was turned down.
On whether she was ever in love with Gadd, Harvey responded: “Piers… Is that a serious question? No… I gave him the brush off. He asked me to sleep with him with a big green spot in his face one day.
“I said no, I’m sorry, I’m not interested. He asked me to sleep with him. He said, ‘would I like my curtains fixed’? And I laughed and he said, that’s a euphemism. You want me to come home with you? And I said, ‘I’ve got a boyfriend’.
“I gave him the brush off big time, I think, you know, subtly so. But the bottom line is.. No, I don’t fancy little boys without jobs. That sounds awful. That sounds really, really callous. But, you know.”
What Fiona claims is true in Baby Reindeer saga
Fiona Harvey – who claims to be the inspiration for the Baby Reindeer character Martha – says there is only a handful of things true in the Netflix show.
The seven-part series, which premiered last month, was written by comedian Richard Gadd and purports to be based on his own personal experiences of being stalked and sexually assaulted.
Gadd, 34, plays a fictionalised version of himself – Donnie Dunn – but Harvey, who was ‘outed’ by internet sleuths within hours of the show being uploaded, is adamant the story is “completely untrue”.
The 58-year-old law graduate said: “It’s a work of hyperbole, as I’ve always said. And there are two true facts in that. His name is Richard Gadd, and he works as a jobbing barman on benefits, in the Hawley Arms. And we met, two or three times…”
On whether she said he looked like a ‘baby reindeer’ toy she had as a child, she added: “I had a toy reindeer and he’d shaved his head, that bit is true, and there were reindeer in the shops because it was Christmas time or something. It was a joke.
“So I have inadvertently penned the name of the show.”
Netflix has insisted it was careful to hide Martha’s identity.
Policy chief Benjamin King told MPs in the Commons this week that Netflix and Clerkenwell Films — which made the show — took “every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story”.
He added: “Ultimately, it’s obviously very difficult to control what viewers do, particularly in a world where everything is amplified by social media. I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with a world in which we decided it was better that Richard was silenced and not allowed to tell the story.”