How True is 'Baby Reindeer'? Netflix's New Star Richard Gadd Has a Message for Fans

The new limited series Baby Reindeer is the hottest show on Netflix right now and fans are trying to learn more about the real story that inspired it.

Baby Reindeer follows struggling comedian Donny Dunn’s (Richard Gadd) warped relationship with his female stalker (Jessica Gunning) and the impact it has on him as he is ultimately forced to face a deeply buried trauma.

The series opens with the disclaimer, “This is a true story.” But, how true is it?

Keep reading to find out more…

Richard is speaking out and imploring fans to stop trying to figure out the name of the real person who inspired the story.

“It’s all emotionally 100 percent true if that makes sense,” Richard told Variety. “It’s all borrowed from instances that happened to me and real people that I met. But of course, you can’t do the exact truth, for both legal and artistic reasons. I mean, there’s certain protections, you can’t just copy somebody else’s life and name and put it onto television. And obviously, we were very aware that some characters in it are vulnerable people, so you don’t want to make their lives more difficult. So you have to change things to protect yourself and protect other people.”

Richard also took to his Instagram Stories to comment on speculation.

He said, “People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation. Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”

Sean took to Twitter and said in a message, “Police have been informed and are investigating all defamatory abusive and threatening posts against me.”