Piers Morgan has claimed he’s emailed Richard Gadd to personally invite him on his talkshow.
The former Good Morning Britain presenter, 59, sparked controversy after interviewing the ‘real Martha’ from Gadd’s Netflix programme series Baby Reindeer.
Morgan spoke to Fiona Harvey, who is portrayed as having stalked Gadd in the seven-part drama, which is fictionalised but based on a true story.
It follows struggling comedian Donny (played by Gadd) meeting a woman named Martha (played by Jessica Gunning), however, a seemingly friendly encounter quickly turns sinister, as Martha’s obsession grows and she begins waiting outside his house, sending him thousands of emails, and even harassing his parents and turning violent towards his girlfriend.
In the explosive interview, which has 11 million views online, Morgan grilled Harvey on the messages she’d sent and parts of the Netflix programme, while she insisted it was ‘a work of fiction, a work of hyperbole’, and said: ‘I wanted to rebut that completely on this show – I am not a stalker, I have not been to jail, I’ve not got injunctions – it is complete nonsense.’
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He’s since gone on to defend his actions, and address Harvey’s request for a £1million fee.
And as fans have begged him to hear the other side of the story by interviewing the show’s creator Gadd, Morgan revealed he has reached out to him.
He wrote on X: ‘I’ve emailed him personally to invite him.’
This comes after Gadd said he doesn’t plan on speaking about the real-life identities of his characters, telling The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I don’t think I’ll ever comment on it ever again.’
He went on: ‘I don’t agree with the sleuth thing. I’ve put out a statement publicly saying I want the show to be received as a piece of art, and I want the show to people to enjoy as a piece of art. I’m called Donny Dunn.
‘It exists in a sort of fictional realm, even though it’s based on truth, it exists in a fictional realm, let’s enjoy the world that I’ve created. If I wanted the real life people to be found, I would’ve made it a documentary.
‘I’ve spoken publicly about how I don’t want people to do it and if I start playing a game of whack-a-mole, then I’m almost adding to it. I don’t think I’ll ever comment on it ever again.’
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During an episode of his talk show, following his interview with Harvey, Morgan ‘said that the ‘real issue’ was her identity being known after Netflix ‘chose an actress who looked like her, and they made her sound like her, they revealed it was a North London pub she had been in and they revealed all the choice of messages which could be easily tracked back to her own social media.’
‘She was furious at what she saw as an unwarranted invasion of her privacy,’ Morgan went on.
‘She thought very seriously that she was being exploited for massive financial gain, that people were making a lot of money out of this story and the story was not as they claimed the true story but was a false and irresponsible mischaracterisation of the truth,’ he said.
Morgan continued: ‘I don’t know where the truth lies, because no journalist in the world has yet been able to establish that this lady Fiona Harvey has a criminal record… that she’s even been in a courtroom, or charged with any offence, or convicted, let alone – as the Netflix show shows – has confessed to a crime which led to a eight-month prison sentence, and that, if it is not true, to me, massively discredits the Netflix series and massively contradicts their claim it is a true story.’
The presenter then turned the discussion to a lawyer who claimed to have spoken to Harvey, who said she feels ‘extremely aggrieved at what has happened to her and her reputation’.
During the Uncensored interview, Harvey said she had six email addresses and multiple phones, and denied several parts of the Netflix series, including sexually assaulting Gadd, assaulting his girlfriend or launching at him across a bar – something Martha did in the show.
She added that she will be taking legal action and repeatedly denied stalking Gadd in real life, saying of the thousands of emails: ‘None of that is true. I don’t think I sent him anything. There may have been a couple of emails.’
She also claimed Gadd asked her to sleep with him with a ‘big green spot on his face’ and asked her if she’d like her ‘curtains fixed’, and elsewhere, after being grilled by Morgan over the thousands of emails, admitted she had six email addresses and multiple phones.
She later spoke out and said she felt ‘used’ by Morgan, telling the Daily Record: ‘I have my own thoughts on it that I’d like to keep to myself but I wouldn’t say I was happy. It was very rapid to try to trip me up. He did it fast-paced to catch me off guard.’
‘It seemed to me that I was set up. I feel a bit used,’ Harvey added.
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Meanwhile, Morgan reportedly described the interaction as a ‘sparring match’ between the pair, for which his interviewee claims she was only paid £250, and he claimed she ‘lied quite a lot’.
‘But that doesn’t mean she can’t be a victim here too,’ he added.
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Baby Reindeer is available to stream on Netflix and Piers Morgan Uncensored airs on YouTube weekdays at 8pm.
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