Real-life Martha talks death threats in wake of 'Baby Reindeer'

Baby Reindeer has wormed its way into the consciousness of every TV connoisseur, having spread like wildfire by word of mouth ever since its April 11 release on Netflix. Viewers have been hooked by the allegedly true story of crazed stalker Martha, who becomes besotted with comedian Donny Dun and embarks on a campaign of online harassment lasting four years.

Richard Gadd, who both stars in the show and created it, has maintained that the events of the intensely popular show are credible. The stalker character, Martha, is played by actor Jessica Gunning. Gadd has been adamant that the real Martha's identity had been heavily disguised to prevent it from being leaked.

However, within days of the show’s release, the identity of the real Martha was outed and proven to be Scottish lawyer, Fiona Harvey. In a twist of irony, Harvey has since endured a series of “horrendous” online attacks. Seeking to “set the record straight”, Harvey appeared for an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan on his YouTube show, Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Admitting that she has no desire to watch Baby Reindeer, which she claims has slandered her character, Harvey stated, “The only true facts are that he worked as a barman in the Holly Arms and that we met. The rest of it is fiction.”

Detailing the trauma cast upon her upon the release of the show, Harvey revealed, “Internet sleuths tracked me down and gave me death threats. It’s been absolutely horrendous.” In a bid to distance herself from the attention, Harvey said that she had gone off social media and is now too scared to check the news in case she finds herself on it.

Drawing out details depicted in the Netflix series, Morgan put forward Gadd’s claim that the “real Martha” sent a staggering 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters and 350 hours of voicemail. Harvey dismissed the allegation and answered “That’s simply not true. I sent less than ten emails. If somebody was sending somebody 41,000 emails or something, they’d be doing how many a day? Lots.”

Prior to Harvey’s interview with Morgan, viewers on social media had been left stunned by the details depicted in the Baby Reindeer. However, once Harvey’s identity came to the fore, one cynical fan on YouTube remarked, “I think they picked an actor who looked like her (Harvey) on purpose so that people would find her and make her life hell.”

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