Former child star Miranda Cosgrove shared details about an incident several years ago in which a stalker lit himself on fire and fatally shot himself in her yard.
The man had previously fired shots at a woman resembling Cosgrove who had driven near her residence. Years later, the actor unexpectedly encountered the same woman at an event for Kitten Rescue L.A.
"This girl came up to me, and she was like, 'I didn't know if I should tell you this here or how to say this, but I'm actually the girl that was at your house that got shot at,'" Cosgrove, 30, said in an interview with Bustle published Friday.
"She seemed like she processes things in a similar way that I do. She said she'd just gone through a breakup the night before and was going to her friend's house because she was so distraught."
Cosgrove added: "When they brought her into the Hollywood police station to ask what he looked like and how it all happened, the detectives were like, 'Start from the very beginning. What happened?' And she was like, 'Well, he broke up with me last night,' and she started telling them all about her breakup."
Cosgrove, former "iCarly" star, shared that the situation left her feeling unsafe in her own home.
"That's another reason why I go back and forth to my parents' house so much. I just don't feel super safe in that house," she said. "For two years after it happened, I wouldn't really stay there. Then I got into a relationship and because that person was there with me, I was less scared. But I don't really like being there on my own that much."
Cosgrove opened up about her experience while discussing "Baby Reindeer," Netflix's latest series centered on a struggling comedian and bartender who becomes the target of a woman's obsession. The show is based on creator and star Richard Gadd's alleged real-life experience.
"I feel like if that were me, having to go back through your most terrible experiences and then try to act them [out], that'd be so hard," she added.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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