Miranda Cosgrove recalls her own ‘Baby Reindeer’ stalker incident

As Richard Gadds Baby reindeer fascinates the world, Miranda Cosgrove reflects on her own traumatic experience with a stalker.

In 2016, a man who had been following the iCarly Alum, 30, set herself on fire in her front yard and then fatally shot herself. Luckily she wasn’t home at the time, but when she returned she found her Los Angeles home had turned into a crime scene.

However, this wasn’t the first time she had a frightening encounter. The man had previously shot a woman resembling Cosgrove as she drove past her home. Years later, the actress met the shooting victim at a non-profit animal rescue event.

“This girl came up to me and said, ‘I didn’t know if I should tell you this or how to say it, but I’m actually the girl who was at your house and got shot’.” ” The Mother of the bride Star told Bustle.

“She seemed to process things in a similar way to me,” Cosgrove continued, sharing how the two were able to use the horrific ordeal to form a bond. “She said she had just gone through a breakup the night before and was going to her friend’s house because she was so distraught. When they took her to the Hollywood police station to ask what he looked like and how everything had happened, the detectives said, “Start from the beginning. ‘What happened?’ And she said, ‘He broke up with me last night,’ and started telling them all about their breakup.”

Although she can look back on things with humor, Cosgrove admitted she still struggled with residual trauma left over from the incident.

“That’s another reason why I go to my parents’ house so often,” she said, explaining that she still lives in the same house. “I just don’t feel particularly safe in this house. I wouldn’t really stay there for two years after it happened. Then I got into a relationship and because that person was with me, I was less afraid. But I don’t really like being there alone.”

Now that she’s 30, Cosgrove said she’s been working toward a “big goal”: finding a “place where I feel really safe to start a new chapter, so to speak.”

When she saw Gadd’s Baby reindeer On Netflix, the actress revealed that she didn’t think “very much” about her own experiences, but praised him for being able to live out his trauma.

“I feel like if I were like that and had to go over the most horrible experiences and then try to live them out, it would be so hard,” she confessed.

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Baby reindeer is available to stream on Netflix.