Miranda Cosgrove, the 30-year-old “iCarly” star, recently disclosed a harrowing encounter from eight years ago involving a stalker who set himself on fire and fatally shot himself in her yard. In an interview with Bustle published last Friday, Cosgrove recounted the traumatic event, revealing that the stalker had previously targeted a woman resembling her and had driven near her residence.
Years later, Cosgrove unexpectedly crossed paths with the woman at a charity event in Los Angeles. The “School of Rock” star continued, “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. 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.”
The incident left Cosgrove feeling profoundly unsettled in her own home, prompting her to frequently seek refuge at her parents’ house. Even after the passage of two years, she still harbored lingering fears about staying alone in her residence, finding solace only when in the company of a romantic partner.
Despite the trauma, Cosgrove expressed her appreciation for Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer,” a compelling series depicting the complexities of obsession, based on creator and star Richard Gadd’s own experiences. She empathized with the challenges of revisiting traumatic events for the sake of art, acknowledging the difficulty such a process entails.
Cosgrove shared her stalker ordeal while promoting her latest project, the Netflix rom-com “Mother of the Bride”, which premiered on May 9. The film features an ensemble cast including Brooke Shields, Chad Michael Murray, and Benjamin Bratt.
