The alleged real-life stalker depicted in Baby Reindeer has spoken out after fans of the hit Netflix series uncovered her identity.
According to the Daily Mail, the unnamed woman is considering taking legal action for defamation against the show and its star and creator, Richard Gadd.
Baby Reindeer centers on Gadd’s Donny Dunn, a struggling stand-up comedian who takes pity on a lonely woman, Martha (Jessica Gunning), at the bar where he works. This brief encounter soon spirals into a months-long saga of torment as Gadd finds out Martha is a serial stalker with a history of violence.
The British series is based on something that happened to Gadd in real life, though he admitted elements were changed for legal and artistic reasons. In real life, Gadd’s stalker allegedly sent him 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters, and 350 hours of voicemails over multiple years.
However, the alleged inspiration for Martha has argued that Gadd is the one who is obsessed with her. “He’s using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now,” she told the Daily Mail. “I’m the victim. He’s written a bloody show about me.”
She also said Gadd’s script amounted to “bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune.”
The show has become a worldwide hit, landing at number one on the Netflix charts in 30 countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. But its success has led some viewers to play amateur detectives, trying to discover the real-life inspirations behind the characters.
Despite Gadd’s attempts to hide the real identities, the woman said she has received online “death threats and abuse from Richard Gadd supporters.”
In another statement to the Daily Record, the woman claimed, “I’ve had death threats as a result of his show despite the fact that a lot of the things he claimed are just not true. Someone online said, ‘If I find you I will kill you’. A guy in North Carolina said that he and other people were going to stalk me like I am supposed to have stalked Gadd.”
She added, “I got two hours of sleep last night. I thought, what if his supporters really do things like that?”
In addition to the stalker, fans have also been trying to deduce the identity of the successful TV comedy writer depicted in the series who mentors Donny before sexually abusing him.
Last week, Gadd shared a statement on his Instagram Story, urging viewers to stop speculating on who the real life people might be.
“People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation,” Gadd wrote. “Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”
Baby Reindeer, Streaming, Netflix