Piers Morgan has backed Baby Reindeer’s “real-life Martha” Fiona Harvey in her mega lawsuit against Netflix.
Harvey, 59, is suing the streaming giant after claiming her life was ruined by the hit TV show which claims to be a “true story”.
The Scot allowed herself to be identified by the Record as the inspiration for stalker character Martha but unlike Martha she has never been convicted or jailed.
Now Piers Morgan, who interviewed Harvey this year, is backing her fight with Netflix and believes she has been “defamed” by the show.
He also says Netflix failed to adequately hide her identity when depicting stalker Martha in Scots comic Richard Gadd’s series.
He said: “In the show, which Netflix called a ‘true story’ at the start of each episode, she is depicted as a vile stalker who was twice sent to prison for harassing people, including Richard Gadd, who wrote and starred in the series he says is based on his own experiences.
“It has taken just minutes for internet sleuths to identify Harvey from all the poorly disguised clues, not least the word-for-word recreation of her online posts, and her life had become instant hell with morons bombarding her with abusive and threatening calls.”
Though he found some of her claims “implausible”, Morgan, 59, claims Netflix defamed her by claiming at the start of the series: “This is a true story.”
He added: “After weeks of increasingly febrile speculation, she wanted to have her say. I felt it was only fair she was given the opportunity to tell her own story and respond to the claims being made about her so publicly.
“The interview was electric. Harvey was remarkably confident for someone doing her first TV interview, and very combative too. She gave as good as she got – and was adamant she was not a convicted stalker.
“In fact, she insisted she’d never even been charged with any offence, nor appeared in court, let alone tearfully pled guilty to crimes of stalking people and slung in prison, as Baby Reindeer stated as fact.
“I found some stuff she told me implausible, like her categoric denial of sending Gadd thousands of emails and texts. However, if he has the evidence, that can easily be proved either way.
“But from our own pre-interview investigations, we found zero evidence that she’s a convicted stalker and none has since emerged.
“And that means Netflix broadcast a seriously defamatory lie about her and compounded this by not protecting her real identity from being immediately uncovered. That’s why she is suing them for $170million for defamation and ‘emotional distress’ in a California court.”
Morgan described his exclusive interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored as the most explosive of his career. Recalling how they bagged it, he said: “‘We’ve got her!’ exclaimed one of my ace bookers, Kieron (Mirchadani-Cooper).
“He’d somehow found a phone number for the most wanted woman in Britain and talked her into doing an interview. Not that she apparently needed much persuading. ‘Anything for Piers,’ she said. I trust him to tell my story.’
“And what a story it was. The woman was Fiona Harvey, who has confirmed she is the real-life Martha from the year’s biggest TV smash.”
Morgan added: “Once the interview aired, all hell broke loose. I’ve done a lot of big interviews in my career, from Donald Trump and Beyoncé to Kanye and Cristiano Ronaldo, but none exploded quite like this.
“The interview was watched by 15 million on our YouTube channel, the clips went viral and one on our TikTok, of me asking Harvey if she was in love with Gadd, has been watched nearly 40 million times.
“People begged me to tell them what Harvey was really like. The answer is that she’s very similar to Martha – an intelligent but coarse, aggressive and slightly odd woman who may have behaved like an unpleasant troll, but who does not seem to be a convicted criminal.
“And that fact may end up costing Netflix millions. As to all those who joke, ‘I hope you didn’t give her your number’ I jest in return that no, I didn’t. I gave her Jeremy Clarkson’s.”
The trial is due to take place in California, in front of judge Gary Klausner, in May 2025.
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