Baby Reindeer fans grimace over ‘ethically questionable’ Piers Morgan interview with ‘real’ Martha

Baby reindeer fans couldn’t look away from Piers Morgan’s interview with Fiona Harvey – the woman said to have inspired the show’s stalker character, Martha Scott.

Richard Gadd’s autobiographical series follows a comedian as he is relentlessly harassed and stalked by Martha (Jessica Gunning) for over four years. It became a smash hit for Netflix after its release on April 11.

In a pre-recorded interview for Piers Morgan uncensored which aired on Thursday (May 9), Harvey denied stalking Gadd and said she was considering suing Netflix for defamation.

Before the episode aired on YouTube, viewers questioned the ethics of Morgan’s decision to interview Harvey since Gadd said so. The independent that the real person who inspired Martha was “mentally ill.”

As it aired, fans shared their guilt over watching the bizarre and controversial interview.

“Part of me doesn’t want to watch the interview but I can’t stop watching,” one said.

“My face during this entire interview,” wrote another alongside a gif of Steve Carrell’s character in Office grimacing.

“Time to see Piers Morgan conduct one of the most unethical interviews ever,” added a third.

A fourth shared a gif of a man peeking through his fingers.

that of Morgane Uncensored did not respond to The independentrequest for comment.

During the interview, Harvey denied sending Gadd 41,000 emails and 100 letters while stalking him. Netflix has previously claimed that the emails from the show were the real emails Gadd received from her stalker.

“I think he probably made them up himself,” Harvey claimed, suggesting instead that she only sent him “a handful.” When Morgan asked her for a number, she said she sent the comedian “less than 10 emails.”

She also discussed her treatment online after fans of the show discovered her identity. “It’s taken up enough space in my life,” she said. “I find it quite obscene. I find it horrible, misogynistic. There have been some truly terrible death threats online. People are calling me. You know, it’s been absolutely horrible.

However, Harvey admitted to coming up with the nickname that inspired the series: “I had a toy reindeer and he had shaved his head, right, and there were reindeer in the stores because it was was Christmas or something. It was a joke. So I inadvertently wrote the name of the series.

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The independent has contacted Gadd’s representatives for comment.

From Baby reindeer aired, Gadd wondered if he could have done a better job of hiding the identities of those involved in his traumatic past.

Harvey – a 58-year-old Scottish lawyer – was tracked down by the tabloids after his description closely matched that of Martha.

Attempts have also been made to identify the man who raped Gadd, in a sexual assault recreated in the series’ fourth episode – and which he explored in 2016 in his award-winning one-man show Monkey See, Monkey Do.

An actor and director named Sean Foley said he contacted police regarding “defamatory, abusive and threatening messages” following speculation made about him in relation to the series.

On his Instagram, Gadd urged viewers to stop. “People I love, have worked with and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly caught up in the speculation. Please don’t speculate on who the real people might be. That’s not the point of our show. Lots of love, Richard x

Baby reindeer is available for streaming on Netflix.