Baby Reindeer Sent from my iPhone

Baby Reindeer: A psychologist has explained why Martha always used ‘Sent from my iPhone’

Despite not even owning an iPhone


By far one of the most unsettling parts of Baby Reindeer is all the messages, voicemails and emails Martha sends to Donny.

In real life, she sent 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters. And in the show, most of these emails were all signed off with the classic “Sent from my iPhone” or sometimes just “iphon” despite sending them all from a laptop and not even owning an iPhone. But why?

Well, a chartered psychologist has explained why she thinks this is and it’s all to do with her inability to accept her new reality.

Dr Danielle Haig told LADbible: “Her 40,000 emails, marked by this false signature, are testament not only to her obsession with Donny, but possibly to her inability to reconcile with her new reality.

“The sign-off is less about the actual device and more about what it represents: a sense of belonging to a professional class and a world where she was respected and successful. It is an attempt to project an image of stability and normalcy in contrast to her current life.”

Baby Reindeer Sent from my iPhone

She added: “Signing off her emails with ‘Sent from my iPhone’ despite not owning one may serve as a symbolic link to her former status.”

Dannielle notes that the small detail could be rooted in a desire to preserve her “previous identity” and live almost in delusion.

“This small but deliberate act of deception may reflect her deep-seated need to preserve her previous identity, which has been shattered by her imprisonment,” she adds.

“This insistence on a fictional narrative showcases the psychological complexities of coping with downfall. It also demonstrates how individuals might go to great lengths to retain some semblance of their former selves in the face of drastic life changes.

She finished: “Martha’s story is a raw illustration of the human desire for esteem and the lengths to which someone might go to maintain an illusion of who they once were.”

Baby Reindeer is available on Netflix now. For more like this explainer on why Martha used Sent from my iPhone and all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

‘Honestly, I expected backlash’: Richard Gadd speaks on Baby Reindeer’s staggering success

•  Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning has spoken out about people trying to find the real Martha

Okay, we finally know whether Martha’s emails in Baby Reindeer were actually real