Fiona Harvey — a.k.a the real-life Martha Scott from Baby Reindeer — has not been coping well amid her lawsuit against the show’s creators, her lawyer revealed during a recent interview. While speaking with Piers Morgan on Tuesday, June 18, attorney Richard Roth described how his client has been living as she received backlash for her portrayal in the popular Netflix series.
“I speak to her regularly. Honestly, she’s not well,” Roth said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “She’s clammed up [in] her apartment. She doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know where to go … she’s hurting. She’s been shattered by this. … She’s afraid to go out and get groceries. It’s that bad.”
Roth added that there is “a big percentage of the populace that don’t believe her and think she is the Martha who’s depicted in the series.”
"She's afraid to go out and get groceries."
Fiona Harvey's lawyer Richard Roth tells Piers Morgan how life has been for the 'real Martha' since the Baby Reindeer storm.
Watch more: https://t.co/m53RymeWGH@piersmorgan pic.twitter.com/vC9VNiF0h3
— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) June 18, 2024
In the Netflix show, the character Martha (played by actress Jessica Gunning) aggressively stalks a comedian named Donny Dunn (played by actor Richard Gadd). The character behaves violently throughout the show and sexually assaults Gadd’s character at one point. Gadd created the show based on his original one-man production. He claims he was stalked by a woman in his past but has not publicly named Harvey as the real-life version of Martha.
Shortly after the series premiered in May, Harvey sat down with Morgan, claiming that she was the real person whom Gadd wrote his story about. She also alleged that she was not accurately depicted in Gadd’s show.
“I find it quite obscene. I find it horrifying, misogynistic,” she told Morgan. “People [are] phoning me up. It’s been absolutely horrendous. I wouldn’t give credence to something like that, and it’s not really my kind of drama.”
In June, Harvey sued Netflix for more than $170 million. In her lawsuit, Harvey alleged that her relationship with Gadd was never investigated properly by the streaming platform and that its message at the beginning of episode 1 — “This is a true story” — was a lie.
In response to her lawsuit, a rep for Netflix told PEOPLE they were planning to “defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”
If you or anyone you know has been sexually abused, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing, recovering and more.