Who is the real life Martha and where is she now? These are two of the biggest questions that might come to mind after watching Netflix’s Baby Reindeer.
Harrowing and thought-provoking in equal measure, Baby Reindeer explores real life events that couldn’t be further removed from the rather cute-sounding title. The story is one of trauma as comedian Donny Dunn’s small act of kindness to Martha Scott escalates in a way he couldn’t have imagined when she begins to stalk him. The dark drama is inspired by real-life comedian Richard Gadd’s experience of being stalked by a woman for over four years, and he is not only the show's creator but plays the role of Donny opposite Jessica Gunning’s Martha.
All seven episodes of Baby Reindeer landed on Netflix on 11th April and now many people might well be wondering who the real life Martha is and whether what happened to her in the show is true to life. Here we explain all you need to know as Baby Reindeer continues to draw in new viewers on Netflix with its powerful storytelling and hard-hitting themes.
*Warning: This article contains spoilers and references to sensitive subject matters some might find upsetting*
Who is the real life Martha?
It’s all-too-understandable given that Baby Reindeer is inspired by chilling true events that many viewers might be curious about who the real life Martha is, but Richard Gadd has never revealed the true identity of his stalker. The comedian gave her the name Martha for his one-man show at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival which explores what happened to him - and now for Netflix’s Baby Reindeer - to protect her identity. She stalked him for four and a half years and he received a total of over 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemail messages and 106 pages of letters from "Martha" during this time.
In an interview with The Times published the day Baby Reindeer was released on Netflix, Richard explained that when he went to the police about Martha, he was "physically scared" by what was happening to him, though they reportedly found it hard to fully comprehend.
"When a man gets stalked it can be portrayed in films and television as a sexy thing. Like a femme fatale who gradually becomes more sinister. It doesn’t carry as much threat of physical violence, is less common and can be trivialised," he shared.
"I was physically scared because I didn’t know how far she could take it, she could have a knife, but I did think how terrifying it would be if she was a tall scary man."
To prove that Martha’s behaviour was threatening, Richard began to record all of her messages and go through them, searching for times where she directly threatened him or those he cared about. The Times reported that in real life, the comedian "can’t say too much about the real Martha" and this includes how his stalking ordeal came to an end.
Where is the real life Martha now?
Given that the identity of the real Martha is unknown, it’s also not clear where she is now as the show fictionalised this aspect of the story. In his interview with The Times, Richard declared that Martha’s stalking of him is "resolved". He added that he had "mixed feelings about it" as he "didn’t want to throw someone who was that level of mentally unwell in prison".
His empathy for Martha is something he also spoke about to RadioTimes.com, when he reflected that he was motivated to write Baby Reindeer after being shocked by how difficult it was to resolve things.
"What motivated me to write it is when I was going through it, I was like, 'This is bonkers. How long is it going to go on for? How hard it is to get it all sorted? Why isn't there help for her?'," he said. "When I was getting stalked... I saw someone who was unwell, needed help, was quite vulnerable. Stalking is a mental illness and it comes from a sort of fantasy addiction of some kind, this idea that this person is the answer to all your problems, so you'll hear only what you want to hear, disregard the rest."
Richard also previously told The Guardian back in 2019 that to view Martha as an "awful person" and him as a "victim" would be "unfair".
He confessed, "I did loads of things wrong and made the situation worse. I wasn’t a perfect person [back then], so there’s no point saying I was."
Ultimately, there’s no way of knowing where the real life Martha is now, only that Richard feels that the stalking has been "resolved" and that he wants her to have the "help" he felt she needed.
What happened to Martha in Baby Reindeer?
We might not know where the real Martha is now, but the fictional Martha in Baby Reindeer received a nine month prison sentence for stalking Donny, as well as a five-year restraining order. In the Baby Reindeer finale Martha was arrested after sending a voicemail threatening that one day she could stab someone, with the implication being that she meant Donny and his family. As revealed via Donny’s narration, she was charged with three counts of stalking and harassment and he attended her plea hearing and faced her across the courtroom.
Martha tearfully pleaded guilty to the charges and called Donny her little reindeer. It is later explained via a voicemail Donny listens to later on in the Baby Reindeer finale that she gave him this nickname (which then in turn gave the Netflix show its name) because he reminded her of a cuddly toy reindeer she’d had as a child that comforted her throughout challenging times. The restraining order was issued the same day as the hearing so the last time Donny set eyes on Martha was that day.
Although in the show the stalking was clearly resolved in this way, Martha’s actor Jessica Gunning believes that viewers shouldn’t view the sentence and restraining order as a "victory".
"It's not a success story, there's no victory there. That's why that stage direction is so amazing – there's no jump scare like, 'Ha ha, got you'. It's two lost people and that's captured so well," she said to RadioTimes.com.
Baby Reindeer is available to watch now on Netflix.
