Based on Richard Gadd’s autobiographical one-man show of the same name, Netflix’s Baby Reindeer is based on Gadd’s real-life experience of being stalked by a woman named Martha. The series has become a huge hit for the streaming service since its debut last month, but the real-life Martha has come forward, slamming her portrayal in the show as “obscene” and “defamatory.“
Although Richard Gadd had asked fans not to try to identify the real-life people behind the characters, it didn’t take long for interview sleuths to track down Gadd’s alleged stalker, Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey. In a recent interview with Piers Morgan, the real-life Martha said that the entire Baby Reindeer series is a work of “hyperbole” and “fiction,” adding that she is considering taking legal action against Netflix.
Netflix has maintained that Baby Reindeer is a “true story” and that it took “every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved.” Those precautions obviously weren’t good enough now that Fiona has been identified as Martha. She claims she has been receiving death threats and calls from strangers. “I find it quite obscene. I find it horrifying, misogynistic,” she said. “Some of the death threats have been really terrible online. People phoning me up. You know, it’s been absolutely horrendous.“
It’s been alleged that Fiona sent Richard Gadd more than 41,000 emails and 100 letters while stalking him, which she denies. “I didn’t write him the emails,” she said, suggesting that Gadd “probably made them up himself, I’ve no idea.” She later admitted to sending him some “jokey banter emails” but maintained that she had only seen him “five [or] six times” in her life. She also admitted to giving Gadd the “baby reindeer” nickname, which became a running “joke” after he’d “shaved his head.“
She added that Gadd is “completely off his head” and accused both him and Netflix of lying. “He is lying and they [Netflix] are lying,” Fiona said. “They have billed it as a true story, so has he, and it’s not. It’s blatantly not. Leave me alone please.” She has claimed that she hasn’t actually watched Baby Reindeer for herself.