Piers Morgan is no stranger to interviewing terrible people and still being the worst person in the room at the end of the day. Yet, his most recent exploitative interview with alleged stalker Fiona Harvey ranks highly among the grossest things the Brit has done for views.
Harvey has recently come into the public eye as the possible inspiration behind the terrifying character of Martha in the Netflix hit Baby Reindeer. Martha is a deranged woman who stalks, harasses, and sexually assaults the show’s main character Donny.
The limited series was created by Richard Gadd and is based on his real-life experiences. Originally it was produced as a one-man theater show, before it garnered critical acclaim during a run at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, leading to a television contract for Gadd.
The show became a sleeper hit on Netflix, which led to numerous internet sleuths doing the inappropriate things they do, and attempting to root out the real-life Martha. After cross-refrencing the tweets Martha sent Donny and the ones Harvey posted for Gadd years ago, the latter was soon named as the person the character was based on, which she denies (while also claiming she had in fact met and communicated with Gadd).
It should come as no surprise that a personality as parasitic and amoral as Morgan decided to take this interview on. He has a long history of exploitative behavior, and his list of controversies is almost as large as his ego.
Morgan himself admitted that he didn’t think Harvey was telling the truth in what ended up being an excruciating interview.
Of course, Morgan is an expert when it comes to lying. For years he has denied accusations that he was aware journalists under his editorship were hacking into phones to get news stories, only for a judge to rule last year that he almost certainly did know about the illegal activity.
While the most egregiously evil phone hacking event took place after Morgan had left his role (journalists at News of the World hacked into the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and deleted messages, thus giving her parents hope that she was still alive), he remains responsible for shaping the paper in that way. And, in the years since, it seems nothing has changed for the Brit, who is still exploiting those in his orbit in the worst possible ways. The interview is a prime example of this.
Harvey’s behavior and demeanor during the Q&A were uncomfortable to watch at the best of times. The Scot claimed she was going to sue Gadd and Netflix as a result of the popularity of the series, and that she had only met Gadd two or three times (that soon jumped to interactions lasting two or three months), only sending him 10 emails and 18 tweets, while vehemently denying and mocking how Gadd shows via Baby Reindeer that Martha sent him thousands of tweets, emails, messages, many letters, and disturbing voice messages.
The rest of her responses were rambling and at times, dangerously suspicious, with Harvey often going off on non-sequiturs. Morgan allegedly paid her £250 for her time.
Of course, simply doing the interview isn’t enough for Morgan, who feels the need to extract even more attention from the process. The ghoulish presenter was joined by Esther Krakue, lawyers Paula Rhone-Adrien and Mark Geragos, psychologist Dr Drew, and Will Jordan, AKA The Critical Drinker, to further discuss the interview on his show.
The group covers topics such as Harvey’s potential legal case, events from Baby Reindeer that she confirmed really happened, her alleged criminal history, and the concept of stalking in general. One of the lawyers involved in the discussion was from the U.S., despite the story taking place in the U.K., which has a completely different legal system.
Ironically, they also discussed the intense speculation around another villain in the Baby Reindeer story: A male television executive who is alleged to have raped Gadd. Given Morgan’s history of sucking up to famous rapists, it was particularly tone-deaf to hear him discussing how Gadd might be in the wrong for sharing his experiences. The panel often implied Gadd had lied throughout the series.
There was an element of self-awareness buried deep at the end, as the panel discussed whether or not Morgan should have even done the interview. Unsurprisingly, the sycophantic group of people, who were being given exposure by Morgan, agreed that he was in the right and that he hadn’t exploited Harvey through this interview.
It’s almost impressive how these six people managed to make a sexual abuser seem like the most morally upstanding person in a segment. Then again, as this is a Piers Morgan project, what else should we have expected?