Baby Reindeer’s real-life “Martha” claims the Netflix show is an “obscene” and “defamatory” work of fiction. Source: Flickr.
Baby Reindeer’s real-life “Martha”, Fiona Harvey, claims she will be suing Richard Gadd and Netflix for defamation.
The Netflix series is currently the most streamed TV title globally, hitting more than 11 million views.
Baby Reindeer is dubbed by Netflix as a “true story” as the star and creator of the series, Richard Gadd, known as “Donny” in the show, recounts the traumatic experiences in his life, including his experience with a stalker, “Martha Scott,” who sends him 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, 350 hours worth of voicemails, and 106 letters over the span of six years.
Within days of Baby Reindeer’s release, online sleuths went to great lengths to identify the “real-life Martha” — despite Gadd begging and urging fans not to search for her.
He told Variety that the series is “emotionally 100% true”, with characters altered for obvious legal reasons.
“All I ever wanted to do was capture something complicated about the human condition,” Gadd says.
“That we all make mistakes. That no person is ever good or bad. That we are all lost souls looking for love in our own weird way.”
The real-life Martha, who has now been revealed as Fiona Harvey — a 58-year-old Scottish lawyer who moved to London — has called the Netflix mini-series an “obscene” and “defamatory” work of fiction, disputing the events in an interview with Piers Morgan.
In the interview, Harvey denies ever stalking Gadd and claims that she has been subjected to constant trolling and death threats since the show’s release.
Harvey also admitted that while she did meet Gadd in London in a pub, she had only seen him “five [or] six times” and sent “a couple of emails, some tweets and one letter”.
Chris Daw KC, a lawyer working with Fiona Harvey to build a lawsuit, said he is yet to see any evidence that Harvey has been convicted of stalking or harassment.
“Portraying someone as a convicted criminal who has done time in prison, when that is not true, is a pretty clearcut case of defamation, as it is bound to cause serious harm to that person’s reputation,” he said.
After his interview, Morgan has gone to accuse Netflix of failing to adhere to a standard duty of care towards disguising Harvey’s character, including using real posts from Harvey’s social media accounts.
Over the weekend, it was revealed that Harvey has sent similar messages to her character in Baby Reindeer to Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer.
The messages consisted of 276 emails sent over a period of eight months in 2020.
Due to this incident, fans have continued to connect Harvey to Martha’s character in the series.
Representatives for Gadd and Netflix have refused to respond to any requests for comment.
