Real-life Martha from Baby Reindeer 'not happy' ahead of Piers Morgan YouTube interview

The alleged inspiration behind Baby Reindeer's Martha is set to face off with Piers Morgan in an interview tomorrow, Thursday, May 9. The show-down between the broadcaster and Fiona Harvey, 58, has already been recorded.

It marks her first "big TV interview" following the success of the Netflix show which was widely thought to be based on her interactions with comedian Richard Gadd. But she said the experience left her "not happy" with Morgan.

Harvey, who is originally from Fyvie in Aberdeenshire, described her interview as a “sparring match” and was forced to refute claims by Morgan that she “loved” Gadd who wrote Baby Reindeer based on his alleged experiences with her, The Daily Record reports.

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She said: "There was a heavy emphasis from Piers Morgan on Gadd and the emails I am supposed to have sent.

"I have my own thoughts on it that I’d like to keep to myself but I wouldn’t say I was happy. It was very rapid to try to trip me up. He did it fast-paced to catch me off guard.

"Piers kept saying to me ‘are you sure you haven’t sent this guy 41,000 emails and phone calls?’ A lot of the interview, for a good ten minutes, he kept coming back to this.

"I said: ‘Look, even if I had sent some emails, it doesn’t mean I’m guilty of the rest of the stuff. As I said, in order to bill something as a true story, it’s got to be pretty much 100 per cent true.

"It seemed to me I was set up. I feel a bit used." She added: "Piers said it went well. He referred to it as a sparring match.

"He landed a few punches on me and I landed a few punches on him. He asked me if I loved Richard Gadd and I said: 'You’ve got to be joking'."

Harvey said she was paid £250 for the interview. Explaining how it came about, she said: “Piers contacted me last week about going on his show and, of course, I agreed. This Morning and everybody else has been chasing me.

"I’ve had people telling me they are publicists or agents but it’s difficult to know who to trust. I’ve had people using the most foul language on the phone telling me they could make me a lot of money.

"How all these people got my phone number I don’t know but it’s been hell. Then Piers and his people got in touch and I said yes because he’s the best of them all and is seen by an awful lot of people.

"I told him I’d need to get my hair done because I didn’t want to look like that actress who played me in the show. I had to pick what to wear which was difficult because I had just moved house and couldn’t find anything.

“I had all my clothes out the night before. I wanted to look my best in front of the camera.”

The 30-minute Piers Morgan Uncensored special is set to air on the broadcaster’s YouTube channel, which has 2.58 million subscribers, at 8pm.

Morgan shared news of the interview on X, formerly Twitter, earlier today, Wednesday, May 8. He wrote: "*WORLD EXCLUSIVE* The real-life Martha from Baby Reindeer breaks cover and gives me her first TV interview about the smash-hit Netflix show.

"Fiona Harvey wants to have her say and ‘set the record straight.’ Is she a psycho stalker? Find out tomorrow on @PiersUncensored." Harvey said: “He is the biggest interviewer out there and has the biggest show so obviously I was going to speak to him. Piers sent a car to pick me up and drop me off.

“I let him know what was off-limits. I told him I wouldn’t talk about boyfriends or my family.” Before her interview, Harvey paid a visit to celebrity hairdresser John Hala at his salon in London’s Canary Wharf. John said: “We kept Fiona in the VIP room while she was waiting because we didn’t want the place overrun with paparazzi. Then she left for her interview with Piers.

"The whole Netflix situation has blown up not just in the UK but around the world and I hope things work out for her. She should do very well off the back of her interview.”

Gadd asked viewers not to try to track down the real-life Martha following the success of the show. However, internet detectives were quick to track her down. The sleuths identified a social media post sent on September 23, 2014, in which Harvey tweeted, “@MrRichardGadd my curtains need hung badly.”

Harvey said she was now mulling over legal action against both the comedian and Netflix over the character Martha who is depicted being sent to prison twice, once for a historical crime of stalking and again for stalking Gadd.

In real life Harvey was given a police warning for her conduct involving Gadd but has never been to prison or convicted for stalking. In 2017, Gadd complained to police that he was being stalked by Harvey, which led to a First Instance Harassment Warning being issued against her.

She was believed to have sent him more than 40,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters.