Richard Gadd has gone from a fairly successful performance artist to the name on everyone’s lips in just one month.
The creator behind the Netflix mega-hit Baby Reindeer took from his real-life traumatizing experiences to write the miniseries, which has not only taken streaming charts by storm, but also prompted much-needed conversation around the extremely sensitive topic of male sexual assault.
In the series, Gadd plays a fictionalized version of himself called Donny, a failing comic who tends bar for a living. When a customer named Martha begins taking extreme interest in his life, it soon turns into a full-fledged stalker situation, with Donny being pestered with e-mails and followed constantly. In the show, Gadd also explores a past sexual assault that he was subjected to by a male producer/screenwriter working in London as well as the conflicting emotions the incident provoked in him regarding his sexual orientation. This has naturally prompted questions about Gadd’s real-life sexuality and marital status.
What is Richard Gadd’s sexuality?
In Baby Reindeer, Gadd’s character, Donny, is bisexual. He had only dated women until he was assaulted, and the fact that his attraction towards the same sex gained new dimensions after the event was extremely confusing, leading to some reckless sexual practices and behaviors in the months that followed.
Eventually, though, he began dating people of all genders and created a profile on a transgender dating app, via which he met the person ⏤ Teri ⏤ he at one point describes as being the love of his life. The relationship eventually crumbled due to Donny’s own complicated mental health and the effects both Martha and the man who abused him had had on it. Teri is also a stand-in for one of Gadd’s ex-relationships in real life, but her identity has not been disclosed.
The line between fact and fiction is intentionally blurred in Baby Reindeer, but Gadd identifies as bisexual off-screen, too. In an interview with Attitude, he said, “I sometimes change with the tide. I feel very strongly for both [men and women].”
“I think we’re just learning to see the world in different ways and not be so rigid about it. And I feel like I’m constantly in a state of flux with my sexuality. Some days I feel a certain way and other days I feel other ways. But every time I land on one, my brain flies off to the other. It’s almost like a restlessness. But maybe that’s what bisexuality is. (…) I tried to identify both ways in my time, and it never worked for me as much as bisexual, really.”
Is Richard Gadd married or single?
As of this writing, Richard Gadd is single. In an interview with The London Times, the actor/writer/performer said he lives alone and is not in a relationship. Trusting people is now a much more difficult process for him. “I am way more cautious around people now,” he said.
Actress Reece Lyons recently published a thread of posts on X detailing her relationship with a man who fits Gadd’s description. According to Lyons, the two met after one of her shows, when he offered her a drink and told her about his upcoming Netflix show. He wanted her to audition for the role of a trans woman, presumably Teri, and informed her from the beginning that he was attracted to her.
After one date, Lyons called it off due to the conflicting interests, but the man believed to be Gadd pursued the relationship further and she said yes, for fear saying no would hurt her chances of getting the role. Later, the man, she says, told her she had not gotten the part, because Netflix wanted to go with someone more famous, and that their relationship outside of work couldn’t go on because she was “too confrontational.”
Per Deadline, Gadd “was investigated and ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing by Baby Reindeer producer Clerkenwell Films.”