The woman purported to be the “real-life” Martha from the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer reportedly sent the U.K.’s Labour party leader Keir Starmer 276 emails in less than eight months, according to British tabloid The Sun, which published some of what it claims are the emails.
Fiona Harvey, believed to be the real-life woman who allegedly stalked and harassed series creator Richard Gadd across thousands of emails alongside turning up at the pub he worked at and comedy gigs he performed, recently found herself in the hot seat on Piers Morgan Uncensored. She claimed to have never contacted Gadd by phone and alleged that he had asked to sleep with her, which she turned down.
Harvey has also said she will be suing Netflix for what she called the “work of fiction” penned and performed by Gadd, and that she had received death threats since the program that she calls “defamatory” aired.
“I have no doubt that the character of “Martha” in Baby Reindeer was intended to be a portrayal of me,” Harvey said in part in a statement obtained via her lawyer by The Hollywood Reporter. “The problem for Richard Gadd and now for Netflix is that Baby Reindeer is not a true story at all. I am not a “convicted stalker.” I have never been charged with any crime, let alone been convicted, still less pleaded guilty and of course I have never been to prison for anything. This is how Gadd and Netflix chose to portray me in a TV show, for their own financial gain. Nobody ever approached me for any comment on the accuracy of Baby Reindeer, or the very serious and damaging allegation that I am a convicted criminal, with a serious criminal record, who has spent time in prison. Nobody ever asked for my permission to present me in this way or to use my image at all.”
She added, “With the assistance of a senior English lawyer, Chris Daw KC, I am putting together
a legal team, in the U.K. and in the U.S., to take forward legal action against all of those who have lied about me and used my image to make large sums of money for themselves, with such damaging consequences for me and my family.”
Starmer is the leader of the left-wing U.K. party and poised to become the country’s next prime minister. In the emails, which were sent between January and August of 2020, according to The Sun, she calls the politician a “stupid little boy” and a “useless barrister”. Before his time as a member of British parliament, Starmer worked as a human rights lawyer.
The emails, according to The Sun, are signed “Sent from my iPhone” as they infamously were in the program, are abusive in nature and seem to be focused on Harvey’s run-ins with Camden council in London over her apartment block and local area. She insults his wife, Victoria and also makes an attack on deceased loved ones of the parliament member, The Sun reports.
Starmer is the member of parliament for Holborn and St Pancras, in London, next to where Harvey lived at the time, Kilburn.
In April 2020, Harvey, according to The Sun, wrote that after he was elected as the opposition leader, “within two minutes I [Harvey] get an email calling me a racist from the housing ombudsman.” (An ombudsman is a person who has been appointed to look into complaints about companies and organizations.) “I’ve already complsined [sic] about you to the standards commissioner who guess what also does nothing… See from now il I complain about the slightest little thing… Your life won’t be worth living… You do f*** a ll about anything and all I get is abuse every two minutes of the day from your non party.”
That same month she also claimed to know the father of ex-British prime minister Boris Johnson, Stanley. Harvey said: “Keir your grotty wee c***s if animal supporters need to wind their Fg necks in slagging off boris on twitter.”
The emails are written with typos, punctuation and grammar mistakes, as well as oddly-spaced sentences. It is understood London’s Metropolitan Police have been made aware of Harvey’s messages but “were last night unable to provide further detail,” The Sun said. The Hollywood Reporter has contacted the Labour team for comment.
The limited series, inspired by a “true-life story,” has thrust Gadd and, as fans hurried to identify the real people who inspired its characters, Harvey into the spotlight. Over multiple years, the stalker portrayed in Gadd’s show sent him more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters and 350 hours of voicemails. Gadd first translated the traumatic experience into an award-winning stage show of the same name and has spoken at length about the situation.
But Netflix is coming under fire for not protecting the real-life identities of Gadd’s characters. Many have pointed out that airtime given to Harvey could be seen as irresponsible given her unstable demeanor. The streaming giant’s director of public policy, Benjamin King, told a media committee in the wake of the backlash that the show was “the true story of the horrific abuse that the writer and protagonist, Richard Gadd, suffered at the hands of a convicted stalker.”
“We did take every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people whilst striking a balance with the veracity and authenticity of [the] story.”
In the latest turn of events in the Baby Reindeer saga, another British MP has asked Netflix to provide evidence that Harvey is a “convicted stalker,” as King mentioned, claiming that a record of her conviction has not yet been found.
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