Are the emails in Baby Reindeer actually real?

Exactly how many emails, letters, voicemails and tweets Richard Gadd received.

Baby Reindeer has had us in its grips since its release, with the hit Netflix series racking up 2.6 million views in its first week on the platform and quickly becoming the streamer's most popular show in over 30 countries. A fictionalised retelling of Richard Gadd's own very real experiences with a female stalker, Baby Reindeer follows Donny as he unknowingly enters into years of being stalked when he takes pity on a stranger by giving them cup of tea on the house.

Through the series, Donny is inundated with countless calls, texts, Facebook messages and emails from his stalker Martha, with them making up a key element of the show and reinforcing the fact that she's never far. In reality, Gadd received a shocking 41,071 emails over four years, along with a string of other forms of communication which the Scottish comedian has been very open about.

But how do the Baby Reindeer emails measure up to reality?

Here's everything to know about whether Martha's emails in Baby Reindeer were real, as well as how many Facebook messages, tweets and pages of letters Gadd received, with these details having notably been left out of the series.

Netflix

The number of emails, letters, voicemails and tweets Richard Gadd’s stalker sent

In a post captioned “You’ll never believe the hell one cup of tea can cause”, Netflix reveals the extent of the stalking Gadd endured in real life, with the post detailing that his stalker used 4 Facebook accounts to send 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters, 350 hours (!) of voicemails and 744 tweets.

This is all in addition to the staggering 41,071 emails aforementioned, with Netflix having since clarified that the below graphic is vitally missing a 4 in front of it.

Were the Baby Reindeer emails real?

So how many of the Baby Reindeer emails were actually real?

Well, according to Netflix, all of the messages shown through the series are genuine emails that Richard received in real life, typos and all.

At one point in the series, Donny says he is getting roughly 80 emails per day from Martha which continue "long into the night", with him even describing them as being like his own personal podcast because of the sheer volume he receives.

In an interview with Variety, Gadd explained "For artistic reasons, a lot of stalking is quite boring at times, like it’s a repetitive action and it’s, “Oh god, this person’s messaging again.” And of course, in television, especially a thriller, you need to move certain timelines around, you need to move certain points to the end of episodes to make them pay off a little better."

That said, these real messages helped bring the series to life, with the show's creator adding “It was tough, I can’t deny,” he said. “I mean, who in their right mind wants to revisit the worst thing that ever happened to them? The worst period of their life?

“Of course, it affects you and leaves a bit of an imprint on you. But at the same time, I do sometimes feel that revisiting pain and re-experiencing things can lead to a better understanding of them.”

Baby Reindeer is available to watch on Netflix now.