To think that everything Fiona Harvey said in her Piers Morgan interview was a lie? [Edit by MNHQ]

@tiredandabitfat She does actually remind me of a couple of people I've met in the past. One in particular was a complete fantasist, a proper Walter Mitty character who pretended to have done all kinds of jobs and talked readily about his experiences in them. It was fascinating and sad. I got the impression he memorised whatever he happened to hear other people say about their own lives, mentally storing it away for future use, when he would convincingly mimic it all as though describing his own life.

She's just like that when she fluffs around Piers' questions about her grades for the law degree and says of fellow students, "Some of them remember me; one of them did incredibly well, he's a High Court judge."

It's heartbreaking that this kind of mimicry is the closest some people can get to engaging successfully with the world around them. I mean we've all bullshitted at some point, especially as kids, to make ourselves fit in, or to impress, but this takes it to another level and becomes a whole identity.

So sorry. I responded to your post by mistake. Was meant for another poster.

But she wasn’t in court. Gadd says that was made up b

So the story is true, but

she has never been to prison

she didn’t attack his girlfriend (transwoman)

she didn’t smash up the pub

What else is not true (even though it’s supposed to be true)?

Why are we discussing her, when it turns out that some of his problems with her (and not being able to let go) were down to his rape by another man?

He's already had an award winning stage play based on this.

She might be mentally ill, but the writer is doing very well out of it all, ut she is now being hounded and no one’s talking about the rapist. Or the police’s ability to deal with stalkers.

Needless to say it's trending on Twitter/X and the memes and jokes are very cruel. Horrible, unethical exploitation of a mentally fragile person. She is a troubled and troubling person. I watched it which of course contributes to the viewing figures and I am posting on here about it so I have been sucked into the drama so can't claim to occupy the moral highground.

I haven't seen Baby Reindeer, nor the interview, but this is appearing on my social media today, because of the "law degree at Aberdeen" aspect.

I did law at Aberdeen in the 1980s; I'd have been a year or two ahead of her.

To become a solicitor required a law degree, either a three year ordinary, or a four year Honours, followed by a post-grad year - The Diploma in Legal Practice, and then you had to find employment to do the two year legal traineeship.

I did an ordinary degree. I'd estimate that 70-80% of my year did an ordinary degree. The ordinary plus the Diploma was four years at university, and very few people wanted to make that five years if it wasn't necessary. Some of those who did Honours did so because they didn't want a career in law, weren't going to do the one year Diploma, but were using the law degree as an entry into a different career e.g. chartered accountancy training.

An ordinary degree in law, coupled with the post-grad year, wasn't a lesser degree; it was the normal route into a career in law. Most solicitors of my generation graduating from Aberdeen had an ordinary degree.

@ChickyBricky I agree.

Also, when PM asked if she fancied RG and she said "no, I don't fancy little boys. Little boys with no jobs."

Then she chuckled and kind of waved her comment away and said "Ohno, I don't mean to be unkind, but, y'know...." like she was being all magnanimous and didn't want to come across as the big shot lawyer belittling someone who doesn't have a job.

Whereas in actual fact she is not a lawyer and has never worked.

Just farcical.

Who does she think she's kidding?

It's like she thinks everyone is so stupid that they will all just believe her lies, no matter how outlandish.

It's a tough one. Is she vulnerable? She's very mentally unwell, so I suppose she is vulnerable.

But is she also incredibly dangerous? Yes.

She has caused an awful lot of harm to others.

I do agree that the Piers Morgan interview was in bad taste, and I do feel she is being exploited (especially if it's true that she only received £250 payment), but I must confess I did watch it.

She wasn't jailed though. At any time. There's no evidence of this anywhere.

Bloody hell.

It's as I suspected, but it's just so tragic.

Imagine going through school, getting to uni, obtaining a law degree....and then that.

Something obviously went horribly wrong somewhere.

She is so unwell, and Piers Morgan is just a shark. She might be unpleasant, but she’s also vulnerable and to take advantage of her so blatantly is uncomfortable to see.

Probably. But the thing is that I reckon if she is supposed be a stalker this will give her all the attention she craves and more. I don't think this ends well for anybody involved and doesn't reflect well on anyone involved with the TV series. There is a good reason you don't do stuff like this for entertainment. This is just one reason.

Richard Gadd should have thought more carefully on it. I do wonder what his motivation was though.

Yes, she strikes me as putting on an absolutely pantomime of how she thinks a level-headed person would behave and react when confronted unfairly with various accusations. It's like watching someone pretending it wasn't them who just farted in the lift.

@tiredandabitfat

Was she working back then? How did she support herself?

No she never worked. She just walked the streets endlessly. She was on benefits.

Because she sounds entirely incapable of holding down a job

I can't imagine how she could possibly work.

I noticed it too. I think it was for the viewers benefit. Like she was trying to make herself appear credible by considering everything that was put to her and then rebutting it.

What did they change about her exactly? It just seems like a joke that he said he changed as much as he could about her but he changed nothing, not the accent not the fact she says shes a lawyer, not the pub, the name of the show is literally a name she gave him.

You are right, they have been completely disingenuous.
I assumed when watching it that the real Martha wasn’t Scottish, claimed to be something other than a lawyer, because those are really obvious things they could have changed to make her harder to identify.
With hindsight the line about her not recognising herself reads like a dig about her level of delusion.

Just watched it. I don't know what it signifies, but the emphatic nodding and humming reminds me of someone I once knew who was very manipulative and aggressive. (Does anyone know what this is a symptom of?)

And talk about DARVO! - she never stops.

I've got 4!!

She posts multiple times a day and accused Keir Starmer of something or other and is taking him to court.

I think that this is why Piers Mogan did not confront her with evidence of the emails. It was a reprehensible interview and should not have taken place, you could see the anger seething under the surface and to produce proof of some of her lies would have been dangerous. As it is, I already think things have gone too far and I am sure this won't be the end of it.

My worry, as well as for Fiona herself, who doesn’t seem mentally equipped to deal with this press interest, is for the actress who played her.

just reading/listening to interveners with fiona, it would seem that she is really hyper focusing on this actress as being part of the ‘conspiracy’ against her as opposed to just an actress doing a job.

Her eye movements when the video clip of the court scene was shown were really odd. Like she was trying to remember the dates and what actually happened on those dates.

Haven't RTFT in full but I think she's deeply mentally unwell and as such, vulnerable albeit quite dislikable.

Im really not comfortable with the way she's been exposed, harassed online, or brought out into the stocks for public consumption.
In fact I am deeply uncomfortable with it and I do question why Gadd made no effort to preserve any anonymity/dignity despite claiming to have done exactly that.

I say this without defending her actions in the slightest.

Edited to say I haven't watched Baby Reindeer and don't intend to.

Netflix have said -

“We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognise herself"

They are even lying about lying.

When you lie about telling the truth and you lie about the nature and severity of the crimes committed against you or your acquaintances, you are doing an enormous disservice to all victims of abuse.