The drama-thriller Baby Reindeer has been airing on Netflix for a couple of weeks, and it’s taken the entertainment world by storm. The series depicts the real-life experiences of Richard Gadd — a Scottish writer, actor, and comedian — who also wrote the story and stars in it.
Gadd, who’s now 34, was stalked and sexually assaulted in his twenties. In the show, he plays Donny Dunn, a fictionalized version of himself. Donny is stalked by Martha Scott (played brilliantly by Jessica Gunning), a former lawyer with a criminal past who becomes obsessed with the struggling comedian when he offers her a free cup of tea at his job working in a pub.
It’s a terrifying story that prompted iconic horror author Stephen King to post a frank two-word review on X (formerly Twitter). Those words were “Holy s**t,” which says everything you need to know about the brand-new Netflix offering.
However, in a recent interview with the Daily Mail, the self-proclaimed real-life Martha Scott — who remains anonymous — claims the tables have turned and that she’s now the victim, being bullied by Gadd in his pursuit of fame. She stressed that he is using the show to stalk her.
What is the woman saying?
The woman told the British newspaper, “He’s using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now. I’m the victim. He’s written a bloody show about me.”
She claims that aspects of the drama are inaccurate, saying, “I’ve never owned a toy baby reindeer and I wouldn’t have had any conversation with Richard Gadd about a childhood toy either.”
According to the woman, the fictionalized version of her isn’t representative of her appearance, either. She said, “She sort of looks like me after I put on four stone during lockdown, but I’m not actually unattractive.”
A decade ago, over a four-and-a-half-year period, the woman was said to have bombarded Gadd with 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, letters totaling 106 pages, and 350 hours of voicemail messages.
Gadd and Gunning have pleaded with Baby Reindeer fans not to conduct detective work to uncover the woman’s identity after several claimed to have found her on X. Gadd wrote in an Instagram story, “That’s not the point of the show.” He hasn’t addressed the accusations leveled against him by this “Martha” nor has she shared any further comments on the show currently making a killing on the streamer.
