The Biggest Differences Between Netflix's Baby Reindeer Show and What Really Happened to Richard Gadd

The new hit Netflix show, Baby Reindeer, captivated viewers with its dark yet realistic plot. As you may already know, shortly after the show premiered, it was revealed that not only is the show based on a true story, but it is also the personal story of the director and main actor, Richard Gadd. Baby Reindeer is Gadd's autobiography, recounting the disturbing events he experienced in his twenties.

As a matter of fact, this is not the first time Gadd has told his story to the public. At an Edinburgh festival in 2019, he presented his own One-Man Show, which is the original version of the Baby Reindeer script. It is said that his original show is much closer to what happened in real life and has some significant differences compared to the Netflix adaptation. Find out what they are and how the story changed for the hit show Baby Reindeer.

Martha Never Went To Prison

In the final episode of Baby Reindeer, we see Martha being sent to jail for a few months and receiving a five-year restriction order. However, this type of justice was never served to the female stalker in real life.

Despite Richard's openness about his experiences, he avoids disclosing anything about the real people who inspired the characters and their identities. When asked about the real Martha and what happened to her in real life, he told The Times that he "didn't want to throw someone who was that mentally unwell in prison."

From all we know from his interviews, Martha never went to jail. The same happened in his One-Man show where Martha never received a sentence. This makes it almost certain that Martha never faced prison for her actions.

Martha Also Gave Gifts 

This part is new for all Netflix watchers. In Baby Reindeer, Martha reached unthinkable lengths in her stalking. She messaged him daily, constantly visited the bar where he worked, interfered in his personal life, and more. However, she never gave him anything except for once when she left him a picture of herself in underwear.

In the original show Gadd created, Martha gives him different gifts, including a toy reindeer, sleeping pills, underwear, and a wooly hat. This demonstrates her devotion to him even more. Considering that this version of the show is said to be more realistic, it is highly likely that this was part of Richard Gadd's real stalking experiences.

Police Got Involved After Six Years 

Similar to discussions about Martha's fate, Richard Gadd never revealed much about how he finally managed to escape from this abuse. The stalking he experienced was indeed terrible, and he had the same level of difficulty dealing with it as depicted in Baby Reindeer. In the show, it took Donny six months to report Martha to the police, but he needed even more time to find actual proof that could incriminate her in court.

However, the One-Man show described the stalking period as much more serious and prolonged. Apparently, it took six years for the police to become involved. It is unknown what happened after they approached Gadd's female stalker, but he now says that "the situation, shall we say, my dealings with the person who stalked me, is certainly over" (Independent).

We don't know the details of how Richard Gadd managed to put an end to their interactions, but it seems everything is fine now.

The Length of Martha's Stalking 

Netflix's Baby Reindeer had only seven episodes to portray Richard Gadd's real stalking story. Even though it did an amazing job of showing the different aspects of being stalked and the mental issues of a person who could do it, we cannot grasp how serious it actually was. Yes, in the show, Martha does indeed terrible things to terrorize Donny, but can you imagine how this abuse went in real life?

The easiest example that Richard Gadd gave when talking about his story in Netflix's backstage video of the show is that the real Martha sent him a total of "46 Facebook messages, 744 tweets, and 106 pages of letters, as well as over 350 hours of voicemails." We did see her spam in the show, but can you imagine receiving that many messages in real life? The numbers are honestly shocking. What might surprise you even more is that Netflix confirmed in a reel that all messages/emails seen in Baby Reindeer are real. This makes our experience as viewers even more realistic and brings us closer to the characters and Gadd's story.

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