Fiona Harvey says she is the real-life person behind the stalker in the Netflix show ‘Baby Reindeer,’ and she isn’t happy about her portrayal.
Harvey claims that the show makes her look bad. She is upset because she thinks the show uses her story to make money and make Gadd famous. She also doesn’t like how the actress who plays Martha doesn’t look like her:
“I have a claim against Netflix as this is being billed as part of a true story. I’m a highly competent lawyer. I’d have to do it myself. I’m very good. I have a photographic memory and can memorize huge files. I was top in my school at everything. I am very attractive. He’s not Brad Pitt. There’s a fat actress that’s supposed to be me. He’s come up with this character called Martha, and he has put me right in the frame. This is a program for the 20-somethings. The people with no lives, no jobs, whatever. I don’t want to be a celebrity.”
Harvey, 58, reportedly lives by herself in a small apartment in central London.
She Thinks She’s The Victim
Harvey also told the Daily Mail that Gadd is using the show to bully her. She wants him to stop because she now feels like a victim:
“He’s using ‘Baby Reindeer’ to stalk me now. I’m the victim. He’s written a bloody show about me… bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune. Richard Gadd has got ‘main character syndrome’. He always thinks he’s at the center of things. Gadd should leave me alone.”
Gadd Claims What ‘Baby Reindeer’ Shows is True
‘Baby Reindeer’ is created by Richard Gadd. It tells the story of a woman who becomes very obsessed with a man after he gives her a drink. The woman, named Martha in the show, sends thousands of emails and voicemails and writes hundreds of pages of letters to the man over four years.
Gadd says the show is based on true events from his life, but he had to change some things to make the show. He says that the feelings and experiences in the show are very real:
“It’s all emotionally 100% true if that makes sense. It’s all borrowed from instances that happened to me and real people that I met. But of course, you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons. … We were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don’t want to make their lives more difficult. So you have to change things to protect yourself and protect other people.”
Netflix hasn’t responded to Harvey’s threats to sue yet. The show is currently available to watch on Netflix, and you can watch its trailer below.
