"We paid for her to have a nice haircut, a car, and everything else"

'Baby Reindeer' is the Netflix series that has dominated public discourse over the last month or so, but it has reached a crescendo in recent days.

By now, you'll be familiar with Richard Gadd's real-life story of his experience of being stalked by a woman and also being sexually abused by a high-powered TV comedy writer several years ago.

Although Gadd urged fans of the show not to try to uncover the real identity of both figures - although Richard Osman claims that "everyone" in the business knows who his abuser is - it wasn't long before Gadd's stalker, who is called 'Martha Scott' in the series, was unearthed on social media.

And it also wasn't long before some rushed to take advantage of the opportunity, too - with Piers Morgan inviting the woman, whose name is Fiona Harvey, onto his TalkTV show 'Piers Morgan Uncensored' to allegedly "set the record straight".

Harvey's appearance led to criticism from many quarters, with many alleging that it was in bad taste, or that Morgan was taking advantage of someone who is clearly unwell. The controversial TV host was accused of being 'unethical' and 'irresponsible' by giving her a platform.

Harvey herself has since slammed Morgan since her appearance last week, complaining how she was only paid £250 for the appearance and demanding £1 million in compensation for her time.

Now, Morgan has defended his decision to invite the Scottish lawyer onto the show, telling Lorraine Kelly: "She has a right to have her say and was happy to come on the show. I tried to be very fair and balanced and tried to get to the truth. I think she lied in the interview, but is she a convicted stalker?

“The key point is, if she isn’t, then the Netflix claim at the start of every episode saying ‘this is a true story’ becomes problematic."

Harvey had claimed during the interview that she had not been convicted of any crime, and that the Netflix show had been "defamatory".

Morgan added: "Have they defamed her? If you accuse someone of being a convicted stalker and they are not, that is a pretty serious claim to make."

Of the issue with the fee, he added: "We gave her the same amount, I want to say, 95pc of our guests. We don’t discuss that but we paid for her to have a nice haircut, a car, and everything else. I think we’ve performed our duty of care and we’ve stayed in touch with her since."