Baby Reindeer‘s real-life Martha has slammed the Netflix series as an “obscene” and “defamatory” work of fiction, claiming that she is instructing lawyers to sue the streamer.
In an interview with Piers Morgan (full video below), Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey said she had been “forced” into telling her side of the story after Baby Reindeer became an enormous global hit.
Baby Reindeer was billed as a “true story” and provides a searingly raw account of comedian Richard Gadd’s experience with an alleged stalker, known as Martha.
But Harvey told Morgan that it was a “work of hyperbole” and “work of fiction,” and claimed that she was prepared to test her argument in a court of law.
Netflix stood by Baby Reindeer on Wednesday, maintaining the drama was a “true story” and that it took “every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved.”
Internet sleuths identified Harvey within days of the series debuting and she said the experience had made her life difficult, including claiming that she had received death threats and phone calls from strangers.
“I find it quite obscene. I find it horrifying, misogynistic. Some of the death threats have been really terrible online. People phoning me up. You know, it’s been absolutely horrendous,” she said.
Harvey added that Netflix did not contact her before Baby Reindeer premiered globally last month and agreed with Morgan that the series raised duty of care questions.
In the forensic interview, Harvey said she had never been charged or received a jail sentence for stalking, did not send Gadd 41,000 emails or contact his parents, and never heckled Gadd at stand-up gigs.
She denied leaving Gadd voicemails and alleged that she may have been recorded illicitly during her encounters with the writer in the pub in which he worked. She also denied assaulting Gadd’s former girlfriend and said she did not sexually assault Gadd on a canal path.
Harvey acknowledged that she had met Gadd in a London pub, but said she had only seen him “five [or] six times” during her life. She admitted sending him some “jokey banter emails.”
“There are two true facts in that [show]. His name is Richard Gadd, and he works as a jobbing barman on benefits, in the Hawley Arms,” she said.
Harvey claimed she had not watched Baby Reindeer, but argued that Gadd was “completely off his head” and questioned his mental wellbeing.
“He is lying and they [Netflix] are lying,” Harvey told Morgan. “They have billed it as a true story, so has he, and it’s not. It’s blatantly not.” In a message to Gadd, she added: “Leave me alone please.”
Netflix has been contacted for comment. Benjamin King, Netflix UK’s senior public policy director, said on Wednesday that the streamer could not control social media speculation and was not prepared to censor Gadd.
“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,” he told a UK Parliament hearing.
Baby Reindeer launched on Netflix with little fanfare but has exploded on the streamer, amassing nearly 54M views since debuting on April 11. It has been Netflix’s top English-language series for three consecutive weeks.
