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It didn’t take long for Baby Reindeer fans to discover Fiona Harvey‘s tweets—and let’s just say that they reveal a lot about the Real Martha’s relationship with Richard Gadd. They’ll likely be used as evidence during her lawsuit against Netflix, whom she’s suing for defamation and seeking $170 million in damages.
Written and starring Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer follows the journey of Donny, a comedian who’s career is quickly going downhill. But things get even worse for Donny when one small act of kindness lands him in a twisted relationship with a woman named Martha, who soon begins stalking him at the pub he frequents. Viewers loved the series right off the bat, with the show amassing over 60 million streams in its first month on Netflix. Given that the seven-part series starts off each episode under the premise of being a “true story,” fans have since been doing everything in their power to uncover the real people in Baby Reindeer.
Not long after the show’s premiere in April 2024, the “Real Martha” was purportedly identified by internet sleuths as a woman named Fiona Harvey. Harvey has since stepped forward, confirming in an interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan that she’s the woman Gadd dramatized on the Netflix series. However, Harvey has denied many of the plot points in Baby Reindeer. “I’m not a stalker,” she told Piers Morgan. She also denied ever being charged for stalking: “I’ve not been to jail. I’ve not got injunctions.”
During her interview, Morgan asked Harvey about how often she reached out to Gadd. The Netflix series claims that she bombarded Gadd with upwards of 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voice messages, 744 tweets, 48 Facebook messages, and 106 letters. But Harvey also denied ever sending that many correspondences. “That’s simply not true. If somebody was sending somebody 41,000 emails or something, they’d be doing how many a day? Lots,” she told Morgan. Instead, Harvey insisted she sent “less than ten emails,” and only “one letter.”
Related: Baby Reindeer Real People: What We Know About The Actual Martha, Darrien & More
“None of that’s true. I don’t think I sent him anything,” she added. “No, I think there may have been a couple of emails exchanging, but that was it. Just jokey banter emails.” When Piers Morgan pressed her for more details, Harvey continued to deny ever texting him or messaging him on Facebook, estimating that she only sent him about “18 or 14 tweets.” But, the internet doesn’t rest. Up ahead, we’ve rounded up all of Fiona Harvey’s tweets to Richard Gadd so fans can see for themselves just how often she reached out to him.
On June 7, 2024, news broke of her lawsuit against the world’s biggest streaming service—she’s seeking $170 million in damages. Speaking to The Sun, she said, “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 memorise huge files. I was top in my school at everything.”
“The lies that Defendants told about Harvey to over 50 million people worldwide include that Harvey is a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison and that Harvey sexually assaulted Gadd,” her complaint says.
“Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money.” Her tweets may become a key piece of evidence if the case makes it to court.
For more on Baby Reindeer, check out Richard Gadd’s book and play that inspired the Netflix series. The script, which won an Olivier Award in 2020, is described as “a chilling story about obsession, delusion and the terrifying ramifications of a fleeting mistake.” Gadd writes in Baby Reindeer, “I looked at her, wanting her to laugh. Wanting her to share in the joke. But she didn’t. She just stared. I knew then, in that moment – that she had taken it literally…”
