A woman described as the inspiration behind the character of Martha in the Netflix drama Baby Reindeer has spoken out about receiving death threats and to deny being a stalker.
In the drama written by and starring the comedian Richard Gadd, his character, Donny, is stalked by a woman called Martha after he serves her a free cup of tea in the pub where he works.
Fiona Harvey, 58, described Gadd’s account as a “work of fiction” and “hyperbole”.
In an interview with Piers Morgan on Thursday, Harvey said: “On the internet, sleuths tracked me down and hounded me and gave me death threats.”
Harvey denied numerous allegations depicted in the Netflix drama that she stalked the comedian, attacked his girlfriend, lunged at him, sat outside his house and contacted his parents.
She also denied sending Gadd 41,000 emails, hundreds of voice messages and 106 letters, telling Morgan she only sent him a few emails, one letter by post and about 18 messages on X.
Harvey, who said she had not watched Baby Reindeer, said she met Gadd at a pub in London “five or six” times and once joked to the comedian that he reminded her of a baby reindeer toy she had as a child, which inspired the title of the series.
She denied that a scene depicting Gadd looking through her window happened in real life.
Harvey said she knew the comedian for two or three months, did not have his phone number and was not friends with him.
She said her message to Gadd would be “leave me alone, please” and added that she was considering legal action against the comedian and Netflix.
Harvey, who grew up in Scotland and studied law, denied she went to prison for any stalking offence.
After the programme’s release in April, some viewers tried to track down the real Martha by matching social media posts featured in the drama with real-life messages.
When viewers began to speculate over the real people who inspired the events behind the series, Gadd, 34, posted a message to his Instagram story.
He said: “Hi everyone, people I love, have worked with, and admire … are unfairly getting caught up in speculation.
“Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”
