The woman who was the real-life inspiration behind "Martha" on the Netflix hit Baby Reindeer has hit out at the show, its creator Richard Gadd and broadcaster Piers Morgan during a fiery interview on YouTube on Thursday night. (UK time)
Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey denied she was a stalker and has threatened to take streamer Netflix to court over the damage the show has done to her life.
Based on a true story, the series followed a traumatic six-year-long stalking incident that comedian Richard Gadd claimed happened.
The protagonist, Donny Dunn, is a struggling stand-up comedian in the UK who encounters a lonely woman at the bar where he works. After offering her a cup of tea free of charge, Martha - played by Jessica Gunning - is quickly revealed to be a dangerous serial stalker.
The show also claimed she had sent Gadd more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters and 350 hours of voicemails.
However, in her interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Harvey said she had only ever met Gadd three times, and said some of the emails she sent him were just "jokey banter".
Harvey told Morgan she had chosen to speak out as she wanted to "set the record straight" after being bombarded by online trolls.
"It'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. And this is just complete nonsense."
Harvey also went on to tackle some of the show's other claims, but blasted Gadd saying he was "a complete psychopath" who has "done bloody well out of defaming me".
"I just generally think he's got extreme psychiatric problems. It's a work of fiction. It's a work of hyperbole, as I've always said. And and there are two true facts in that. His name is Richard Gadd, and he worked as a jobbing barman on benefits, in the Hawley Arms. And we met two, three times."
The cup of tea
Harvey said she had not been offered tea, revealing: "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."
The correspondence
"Simply not true. If somebody was sending somebody 41,000 emails or something, they'd be doing how many a day? Lots. I don't think I sent him anything… No, I think there may have been a couple of emails exchanging, but that was it. Just jokey banter emails. There may have been a couple of emails," she admitted.
Bar smashing and jail time
Harvey insisted she never smashed up a bar as was depicted in the show, saying: "We've had no apologies from Netflix or him, nothing. I mean, for someone who says he feels sorry for me, I've had no apology. My character seems to have smashed up a bar, sexually assaulted him in a canal, been to prison. There are a number of other allegations - not true."
Netflix and Gadd have yet to comment on the interview, but as questions swirled about whether Harvey was the real person in the show, a statement from Netflix's policy chief Benjamin King said yesterday Netflix and the production company "took every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story."
Harvey has also hit out at Piers Morgan saying he offered her a tiny fee for his interview and saying she was "set up".
Harvey claimed she was given £250 (NZ$518) for the exclusive chat.
"It seemed to me that I was set up. I feel a bit used."
