Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Baby Reindeer, TV and Film, Mental Health
Lucy Devine
Ever since Baby Reindeer dropped on Netflix, viewers have been left gripped by the harrowing true story of Richard Gadd and the woman who stalked him for over four years.
If you've been watching the show, you'll know there's a lot to unpack.
The series tells the comedian's true experience of being relentlessly harassed by his stalker - who in the show is given the fictional name of Martha.
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The pair meet after Donny (played by Gadd) offers Martha (Jessica Gunning) a free cup of tea because he feels sorry for her.
Martha is obsessed with the idea that there's a connection between them and soon begins flooding Donny with emails and voicemails.
In total, Martha sent 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters.
After becoming alarmed at her relentless messaging, Donny is shocked to learn that Martha has a law degree and even worked as a lawyer before losing her job when she was convicted of stalking her boss.
Every email shown in the drama was actually sent by Martha in real life and viewers have honed in on one rather eery detail.
Martha signs off every email with 'Sent from my iPhone' (or sometimes just 'iphon').
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This is despite the fact that she's not emailing from an iPhone - nor does she even have one.
But why?
Well, an expert has weighed in on the potential reasons, noting that Martha was once part of a professional industry.
Chartered psychologist Dannielle Haig tells LADbible: "Her 40,000 emails, marked by this false signature, are testament not only to her obsession with Donny, but possibly to her inability to reconcile with her new reality.
"The sign-off is less about the actual device and more about what it represents: a sense of belonging to a professional class and a world where she was respected and successful. It is an attempt to project an image of stability and normalcy in contrast to her current life.
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"Signing off her emails with 'Sent from my iPhone' despite not owning one may serve as a symbolic link to her former status."
Dannielle notes that the small detail could be rooted in a desire to preserve her 'previous identity'.
"This small but deliberate act of deception may reflect her deep-seated need to preserve her previous identity, which has been shattered by her imprisonment," she adds.
"This insistence on a fictional narrative showcases the psychological complexities of coping with downfall. It also demonstrates how individuals might go to great lengths to retain some semblance of their former selves in the face of drastic life changes.
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"Martha’s story is a raw illustration of the human desire for esteem and the lengths to which someone might go to maintain an illusion of who they once were."
Gadd has previously spoken about the real Martha, and her struggle with mental illness.
In the drama, Martha was eventually sentenced to nine months in prison and given a five-year restraining order.
Speaking about the real events, Gadd told The Independent: “Stalking and harassment is a form of mental illness. It would have been wrong to paint her as a monster, because she’s unwell, and the system’s failed her."
While Baby Reindeer is based on a true story, many viewers have been left questioning which parts were fabricated for the Netflix show.
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We've separated the facts from the fiction.
In Baby Reindeer, Gadd's character Donny offers Martha a free drink after feeling sorry for her when she said she couldn't afford one.
This is true as Gadd's seemingly harmless act of kindness quickly snowballed into a shocking turn of events.
Gadd's stalker sent him 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters over four-and-a-half years.
In real life, she also sent him a variety of strange gifts, including a reindeer toy, sleeping pills, a woolly hat and boxers.
In the series, Donny wasn't taken seriously when he initially reported Martha to the police.
According to Gadd, it was six years before they finally intervened.
Gadd has spoken about how some details of the show have been changed to protect identities of those involved.
He explained that 'Martha' had been disguised to such an extent that he doesn't think she'd 'recognise herself'.
It's also unclear whether the real-life Martha went to prison.
In Baby Reindeer, she was sentenced to nine months in prison and given a five-year restraining order.
Though Gadd told The Times the stalking issue has been 'resolved', adding that he 'mixed feelings about it' because he 'didn't want to throw someone who was that level of mentally unwell in prison'.
If you're experiencing distressing thoughts and feelings, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is there to support you. They're open from 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year. Their national number is 0800 58 58 58 and they also have a webchat service if you're not comfortable talking on the phone.