“Martha” is telling her side of the story. After writer/actor Richard Gadd shared his “true story” of being stalked by an older woman on the Netflix series Baby Reindeer, the woman who allegedly inspired the character Martha has come forward to share her truth.
Fiona Harvey denied that she was obsessed Gadd, saying the only “true facts” of the show are that she met him while he was working as a bartender at The Hawley Arms in London.
“He didn’t offer me a cup of tea. Nobody gets anything free from The Hawley Arms,” she said on a Piers Morgan Uncensored interview that aired May 9. “I was in for a meal with a drink of lemonade and I was very, very hungry. I’m diabetic, so very hungry.”
According to the 58-year-old, Gadd interrupted her conversation with another barman. “It’s pretty rude to interrupt,” she said, “so he seemed to be obsessed with me from that moment onward.” Harvey said she met Gadd just two or three times and only knew him for “two or three months” over 10 years ago.
And although Baby Reindeer states that Martha, a former lawyer, sent bartender Donny 41,000 emails and 350 voicemails, Harvey called that “completely incorrect” when it comes to her experience with the comedian.
“I don’t think I sent him anything,” she told Morgan at first, before confessing, “May have been a couple of emails, just jokey banter emails. That was it.”
The Scotland native then admitted to sending him about 18 tweets, 10 emails and one written letter. She also revealed that she did indeed have a reindeer toy growing up, which she had mentioned to Gadd-a reference that she said “inadvertently” inspired the name of the Netflix show. “I had a toy reindeer and he’d shaved his head, that bit is true, and there were reindeers in the shops,” she shared. “It was Christmastime or something. It was a joke.”
Harvey-who said she has a law degree from University of Aberdeen-also confirmed that they had a conversation about hanging curtains as a “sexual innuendo,” which is depicted in one scene. “He asked me to sleep with him. He said, ‘Would I like my curtains fixed,” she alleged. “And I laughed and he said, ‘That’s a euphemism. Do you want me to come home with you?’ I said, ‘I’ve got a boyfriend.’ I gave him the brush off.”
But as for the Baby Reindeer plot lines that Harvey says were made up? She said she never contacted Gadd’s parents and she never caught him looking in her windows or at her house. Plus, she said she never heckled him at his comedy shows-though she admitted to attending one. Crucially, Harvey said that, unlike Martha, she has never been charged with a crime and has never been to jail or prison.
“That’s completely false,” she said of a court scene in which Martha pleads guilty. “Very defamatory to me, very career damaging.” Harvey-who said she’s been in a relationship with a lawyer for the past five years-is ultimately accusing Netflix and Gadd of defamation and said she’ll be taking legal action against them. She stated she was never contacted about the show and was “shocked” to first learn of Gadd’s 2019 stage play Baby Reindeer and subsequent TV show last month.