Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning star in ‘Baby Reindeer’

Baby Reindeer has taken the world by storm. The Netflix drama about a stalker and her victim has been viewed more than 13 million times since its launch a fortnight ago, sitting at number one on the streamer’s chart in more than 30 countries including the UK and US.

This has inevitably prompted much internet speculation about the real identities of some of the figures given fictional names in the show, and while Richard Gadd – who wrote the show based on his own previous experience of being stalked, and stars as the main protagonist ‘Donny’ – has requested that people don’t try to work out who the people really are, the woman identified as the real-life ‘Martha’ has now spoken out to say she has received death threats and abuse from Gadd’s supporters.

The woman, whom the Daily Mail has interviewed without revealing her name, told the newspaper she believes Gadd is “bullying an older woman for fame and fortune.” She is quoted saying: “He’s using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now. I’m the victim. He’s written a bloody show about me.”

The woman, who denied to the newspaper that she had been Gadd’s stalker, accused him of having “main character syndrome” and disputed aspects of the drama:

“I’ve never owned a toy baby reindeer and I wouldn’t have had any conversation with Richard Gadd about a childhood toy either.”

Gadd has revealed that, over four and a half years a decade ago, he received 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, letters totalling 106 pages and 350 hours of voicemail messages from an older woman, played by Jessica Gunning in the hit show. The woman said:

“She sort of looks like me after I put on four stone during lockdown but I’m not actually unattractive.”

Both Gadd and Gunning have urged viewers not to try to guess the identities of people in Baby Reindeer, with Gadd writing on Instagram, “That’s not the point of the show.”