She’s used to being recognised, but in May 2024, Jazz Thornton faced a fear she never expected – an online follower who took things too far. Between her mental health advocacy, a growing social media audience of 3.5 million followers, a stint on Celebrity Treasure Island and a win on Dancing With The Stars, her public profile boomed.
But while she accepted being known comes with compromises, nothing prepared her for the unsettling events that would unfold when someone she’d never met decided to track her across the world.
“I missed the early warning signs because I hadn’t seen his messages,” explains Jazz, 31.
“A guy named Pieter discovered me online, then spent the next three weeks going through everything. But the first I knew of him was when he messaged my housemate, saying he wanted to come to New Zealand to find me.”
A quick read of his notes should have raised alarm bells – “I’m sorry I’m so obsessed with you at the moment,” he wrote – but Jazz brushed it off, feeling safe in the knowledge he lived in the Netherlands.
“I just thought, ‘She’ll be right.’ You don’t think someone’s going to fly across the world to find you! But then he messaged to say he’d booked a flight.”
A message that changed everything
Then came the Instagram tag – a photo of Pieter in New Zealand with her book in his hands. That night, she checked his messages again and one raised alarm bells.
“I’m so sorry,” he wrote.
“I’ve done something really bad that has something to do with you.”
Jazz recalls, “I genuinely don’t think I’ve felt so afraid in my life as I did at that moment.”
When things became more intense
Acting on advice from a police friend, she filed a report the next morning. Then later that day, she arrived home to see a man in the park opposite and found a brown paper bag outside the house. Inside were Dutch lollies and a letter from Pieter.
Rushing inside, Jazz and her flatmates could see the man from the park was now looking into their house. It was then Jazz rang 111. But by the time the police got there, Pieter had gone.
When fear turned into uncertainty
“I compare that to spiders,” says Jazz.
“Seeing a spider is terrifying, but losing a spider is more terrifying. He disappeared and we had no idea where. I could see the police were worried.”
Advised not to stay at the house, she went into hiding and spoke with detectives, who tried to piece together what Pieter might do next. Luckily, he was found, then served with criminal harassment and trespass notices. But police told Jazz he didn’t seem remorseful and they feared escalation.
Going into hiding for safety
What shocked the reality star most was how he’d found her house. Using small clues from videos posted years earlier – a pedestrian bridge and a glimpse of a pylon – Pieter used Google Earth to identify her location.
“That was a real wake-up call,” Jazz admits.
While Pieter left the country a few days later with no further contact, the experience has changed her.
“It doesn’t leave you,” she reflects.
Living with lasting fear
“It’s changed a lot for me. I will never post anything about my location or suburb. I’m back on anti-anxiety pills and have experienced panic attacks. My whole body now just lives on edge, and I’m hyper-aware of people and my surroundings.”
Jazz and her housemates were so terrified, they moved three times in the following months.
“That’s probably one of the harder parts,” Jazz admits.
“I felt like I put everyone at risk.”
Despite that, she made the decision to publicly share what happened to boost awareness of a petition to make stalking illegal in New Zealand. The response was immediate, with signatures soon reaching the required 20,000. Legislation has since been passed and is due to come into effect shortly.
Finding support in unexpected places
Jazz, meanwhile, has found comfort from a surprising source – Lady Gaga’s mum Cynthia Germanotta, 71.
“She works in the mental health space and I’ve known her for quite a few years,” smiles Jazz.
“She actually got me backstage to meet Gaga after her show in Vegas. I reached out to her after this happened and she was just incredible with advice.”
Turning experience into advocacy
Jazz’s experience is now part of the Sky documentary series Stalked, which she also worked on as an executive producer, but she says she’s done with reality TV. Instead, her attention is focused on her charity Voices of Hope and storytelling that creates real change.
“It will have zero to do with me,” she insists.
“I love watching true crime, but I hate being the true crime. Never again!”
Stalked premieres Monday 4 May on Sky Open and Neon.
