“People in the industry know who that person was”: Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer Gets Even Darker After Another Comedian Reveals Everyone Knows His Real-Life Abuser

Exposing startling elements and narrating the thrilling story of a stalker, Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer turned into a Netflix hit, following its release. Further, by notifying fans and audiences that his show is a semi-autobiographical project, based on his real-life experience, Gadd drew attention towards his show.

However, on informing fans about how Baby Reindeer is actually based on his real-life experience of being stalked and abused, Richard Gadd unknowingly took things to a different route. Addressing Gadd’s comments, people started figuring out who his stalker might be, which led some to falsely accuse director and writer Sean Foley. Considering the weight of the situation, Richard Osman shared a dark revelation of how everyone in the industry knows Gadd’s abuser.

Fans Falsely Accused Sean Foley for Richard Gadd’s Assault

Over the years, through the evolution of cinema and art, the world has witnessed several autofictions and reality-based projects. But rarely has an autobiographical work of fiction exposed as many startling elements as Netflix’s hit Baby Reindeer. The seven-episode limited series from British comedian Richard Gadd is currently making headlines for its dark association with Gadd’s real life.

While the psychological show narrates an unconventional stalker story, the scary part of it comes to the limelight when Richard Gadd claims that it’s based on his real-life experience of being stalked and abused. As the Netflix adaptation deals with the complicated themes of mental health and lack of systemic support for male victims of s*xual assault, fans start looking for clues in the show.

Although Richard Gadd’s hints towards his alleged s*xual assault were somewhat oblique in the show, they seemingly led fans to try and identify the perpetrator. Fans assumed that the people cast in that role had facial features similar to the actual perpetrator. This assumption, unfortunately, caused difficulty for the prominent British theatre director Sean Foley, who wound up being harassed by Baby Reindeer fans, as they were convinced he was the s*xual predator depicted in the show.

Richard Osman’s Dark Revelation About Gadd’s Abuser

Following the harassment faced by Sean Foley, Richard Gadd started working overtime to clarify the misinterpretation, insisting that he was not the perpetrator. The Baby Reindeer creator even took to his Instagram story via Vox, to urge people to not speculate or assume things out of the blue. “Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of the show.”

However, after Richard Gadd addressed the harassment faced by Sean Foley and begged fans to stop, his fellow comedian Richard Osman took things to the next level. Addressing the controversy surrounding the Netflix show in his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, Osman turned Baby Reindeer even darker for fans by revealing that everyone in the industry knows Gadd’s abuser.

“As you say, there’s a very, very serious thing that happens with a male comedy producer and Richard Gadd, who, as you say, did the show in Edinburgh and has been very open to people in the industry about who that person was, so people in the industry know who that person was. Now it comes out now and a completely different person is identified, someone who has produced Richard Gadd before, but is definitively not the person in any way.”

Informing fans that Richard Gadd has been “very open to people in the industry” about who s*xually assaulted him, Richard Osman personally urged people via his podcast to stop accusing the Sean Foley, since he is actually innocent. Claiming that the assumptions are helping no one, Osman noted that only Gadd’s colleagues are aware of the perpetrator.

“The person they’ve cast in that role looks like this other guy, looks like the guy who’s been falsely accused. And it’s such a weird, bizarre thing to do because this poor guy has had death threats and he’s had to issue a statement to say it’s not me. And it is not him, definitely not because people in the industry know who it is. And it’s definitely not him.”

Richard Osman’s revelations come as a shock for fans as they take time to adjust to the fact that everyone in the industry is aware of the individual but has done nothing about it. This information certainly matches with the issue depicted in the show about the lack of systemic support for male victims of s*xual assault.

Baby Reindeer is available on Netflix.