Right now, everyone’s buzzing about Netflix’s Baby Reindeer. And, people are especially curious about Richard Gadd’s stalker Martha, with many questioning who’s the real-life Martha.
Baby Reindeer is made by comedian Richard Gadd, and it’s inspired by his own life. He had this intense experience with a woman who wouldn’t leave him alone for years. While it’s a bit scary, it is also darkly funny. And a lot of people think it’s one of the best things on Netflix this year.
Who is the real Martha from Baby Reindeer?
In the series, Martha is this stressed-out lawyer who meets Richard’s character, Donny, at a bar. They start off friendly, but then Martha gets really obsessed with Donny. She starts leaving him tons of voicemails and emails, like, way too many.
But who’s the real Martha? Well, Richard hasn’t spilled all the beans about her. He has kept her identity a secret and changed some stuff in the show to keep things private.
In real life, Richard’s stalker was pretty similar to Martha in the show. She followed him around, showed up at his gigs, and sent him loads of messages. But Richard sees her as a victim too, not just a creepy stalker. He thinks she needed help that she didn’t get.
He told The Independent, “I couldn’t keep my life separate from what I’d been through anymore. It was becoming increasingly hard to play the frivolous funnyman when I’d been through these kinds of things. So I had no choice, really, but to conflate the two.”
He added, “Because I don’t think I could have really survived having repressed it, and carried on doing these one-liners and surface-level routines. It was almost a survival choice. Because I was struggling so much.”
Where is Martha now?
As for where the real Martha is now, nobody knows. Richard says the situation with his stalker is sorted out, but he didn’t want her to go to prison because she was struggling mentally.
In the show, Martha ends up in jail for nine months because of her stalking. But the show also paints her as someone who needed help rather than just punishment.
At the end of Baby Reindeer, Martha gets arrested for leaving a scary voicemail. She admits she’s been stalking Donny and even calls him her little reindeer. She talks about how Donny reminded her of a comforting toy from her childhood.
So, what’s the deal with Martha? Well, in the show, she gets a restraining order and goes to jail, but it’s not a happy ending. It’s more like two lost people who couldn’t figure things out.
Gadd pointed out, “I really did feel quite confronted with just how kind of how much lack of resources there seemed to be — how the police have been gutted. Like, why wasn’t she being helped in some way? I left with more questions than answers.”
The Baby Reindeer series is currently streaming on Netflix.
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