Huge comedian can’t watch Baby Reindeer after own hell with ‘furious’ stalker-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Frankie Boyle’s stalker appeared in a Scottish court in 2018 (Picture: Hotsauce/REX/Shutterstock)

Frankie Boyle can’t bring himself to watch one of the most talked about shows of the year, Baby Reindeer, as it triggers his own painful memories of being stalked.

A female stalker became obsessed with the Scottish comedian, 51, becoming fixated on ‘living under a tree’ outside his house and repeatedly tracking down his location, including the hotel he stayed at during the Edinburgh Fringe.

Frankie said he could not watch Baby Reindeer, based on creator Richard Gadd’s real-life experience of being stalked and harassed by a woman he met in a London pub, because the situation was too ‘similar’ to his own.

Recounting the ordeal on his podcast Here Comes The Guillotine, Frankie said: ‘I had a stalker in quite a similar situation to that guy [Richard Gadd in Baby Reindeer] and I just can’t do it.

‘I remember doing a gig and just looking down and in the front row she was there in a really crumpled evening gown and she was furious.

‘She didn’t take good care of her personal hygiene. She was very much focused on living under a tree outside my house for quite some length of time.

Frankie said he can’t watch Richard’s show about being stalked, Baby Reindeer (Picture: Ed Miller/Netflix/Avalon)

In the show, a woman named Martha harasses and stalks an aspiring comedian (Picture: Ed Miller/Netflix/Avalon)

Frankie continued: ‘She went into this hotel I was staying at the Edinburgh Festival. She kept turning up and I was like “How is she finding me when I’m in this hotel?”

‘The police said to me, “We found that she had created a kind of nest in the disabled toilet of that hotel.” She had got a duvet in and she had slept in there.’

The woman accused of stalking Frankie for eight months appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in 2018.

She was acquitted of the charges brought against her because she was found not mentally responsible for her actions.

Frankie said the stalker tracked down his hotel at the Edinburgh Fringe (Picture: Getty)

The judge ordered her to be detained under the Mental Health Act for six months and she was handed a three-year non-harassment order banning her from contacting Frankie.

Baby Reindeer follows Gadd’s aspiring comedian Donny being stalked by a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) after a seemingly friendly encounter turns sinister and obsessive.

Over the seven-part series, Donny’s ordeal is exacerbated when Martha begins waiting outside his house, sending him thousands of emails, and even harassing his parents and turning violent towards his girlfriend.

After the show landed on Netflix, internet sleuths began tracking down the identity of the ‘real Martha’, who is believed to be a Scottish woman called Fiona Harvey, 58.

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Fiona said she knew Richard but denied stalking him, describing the show as ‘a work of fiction, a work of hyperbole.’

She later said she felt ‘set up’ by Piers and claimed she was paid just £250 for the interview which has racked up 12million views for the Uncensored YouTube channel.

In a recent statement to PA, Fiona said the ‘firestorm’ around the programme has caused ‘untold damage’ to her health, reputation, and job prospects and was assembling a team of lawyers.

Baby Reindeer is available to watch on Netflix.

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