Baby Reindeer 's Alleged Real-Life Stalker Speaks Out
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Originally appeared on E! Online
Baby Reindeer's real-life "Martha" is breaking her silence.
Two weeks after the release of the Netflix series, which is based on comedian Richard Gadd's experience with a stalker, the woman who allegedly served as his inspiration spoke out to say that she's been receiving "death threats and abuse" from people who have figured out her identity.
"He's using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now," she told the Daily Mail, accusing Gadd of "bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune."
The woman—who the outlet chose not to identify by name—also said she's considering legal action against the actor, claiming he has "main character syndrome."
"I'm the victim," she said. "He's written a bloody show about me."
The woman added, "He always thinks he's at the center of things. I'm not writing shows about him or promoting them in the media, am I? If he wanted me to be properly anonymous, he could have done so. Gadd should leave me alone."
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E! News has reached out to Gadd for comment but hasn't heard back. However, the 34-year-old previously said that many details in the series were changed to protect people's identities. On the show, Gadd portrayed a fictionalized version of himself named Donny Dunn, while his alleged stalker was called Martha, who was played by actress Jessica Gunning.
"It's all borrowed from instances that happened to me and real people that I met," he told Variety in an interview published April 19. "But of course, you can't do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons. I mean, there's certain protections, you can't just copy somebody else's life and name and put it onto television. And obviously, we were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don't want to make their lives more difficult."
Amid Baby Reindeer's success, Gadd also discouraged fans from publicly identifying his past abusers, including the TV writer who sexually abused him early in his comedy career. (In the series, the character was played by Tom Goodman-Hill.)
"Please don't speculate on who any of the real life people could be," he wrote on Instagram Stories, per People. "That's not the point of our show."
So, why did he create Baby Reindeer? "All I ever wanted to do was capture something complicated about the human condition," Gadd wrote in the show's Netflix description. "That we all make mistakes. That no person is ever good or bad. That we are all lost souls looking for love in our own weird way."
He added, "Hoping that in amongst all the messy, complicated, f--ked up themes, Baby Reindeer throws at you that people might take notice of its beating heart."
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