Piers Morgan reveals the one key question in his mind after interviewing 'real life Martha' from Baby Reindeer
Piers Morgan has revealed the one question in his mind after interviewing the 'real-life Martha' from Baby Reindeer.
The Baby Reindeer drama has been snowballing since its release on Netflix last month.
The seven-part series is based on the 'true story' of Richard Gadd and his real ‘warped relationship’ with his female stalker, 'Martha'.
After watching Baby Reindeer, viewers rushed to find the 'real-life Martha' depicted in the show which quickly led to Gadd issuing a plea asking people not to.
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Experts also warned of the 'significant legal and ethical implications' of trying to track down actual people in the belief that they're the person from the show.
But if viewers who were watching this fan-investigation in real-time thought it couldn’t get more complex, Piers Morgan decided to drop a picture online with a woman dubbed the 'real-life Martha' - Fiona Harvey.
He announced he was set to interview her on Piers Morgan’s Uncensored as she wanted 'set the record straight' and 'have her say'.
After the controversial interview, some viewers took to social media to call the whole thing 'irresponsible' and 'unethical'.
Morgan later addressed the backlash he received, writing for The Sun:
"But if Richard Gadd feels entitled to make millions airing his side of the story, and make very serious allegations about Fiona Harvey in the process, then she is surely entitled to respond and defend herself?
"As for who is exploiting whom, I’ll leave that to the court of public opinion to decide."
During an appearance on Lorraine today (14 May), Morgan shared a surprising outlook after speaking with Harvey at length about the series.
He told host Lorraine Kelly: “When you watch the series, it’s gripping television. Richard Gadd, I saw him on your show here and he has done an amazing job of telling this story, but the key question after watching the series and watching my interview is - is it actually a true story?
“And the key part of that is did she actually go to prison? Is she a convicted stalker? As I sit here Lorraine, there is no actual evidence so far that she has ever even been in court.”
Revealing how he believes Netflix failed in its duty of care to protect Harvey, Morgan went on: “The key question is whether they have defamed her?
“If you accuse somebody of being a convicted stalker and they’re not a convicted stalker, that’s a pretty serious mistake to make… If it turns out that she isn’t then the Netflix claim at the start of every episode, 'This is a true story' becomes extremely problematic because it’s not a true story… I think they’ve got problems here because she is clearly determined to have her day in court with Netflix.”
Netflix previously responded to questions regarding Baby Reindeer in a Parliamentary hearing, with policy chief Benjamin King saying that Netflix was ‘satisfied with duty of care standards on the show’.
King told Parliament that Netflix and the production studio behind the series took 'every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story'.
He added: “We didn’t want to anonymise [the authenticity of Gadd’s story] or make it generic to the point where it was no longer his story because that would undermine the intent behind the show.
“Ultimately, it’s obviously very difficult to control what viewers do, particularly in a world where everything is amplified by social media.
“I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with a world in which we decided it was better that Richard was silenced and not allowed to tell the story.”
LADbible has contacted Netflix for comment.
Topics: Baby Reindeer, Netflix, Piers Morgan, TV and Film, Celebrity
Britt Jones