Is A Friend of the Family on Peacock based on a true story?

If you’ve been watching new Peacock series A Friend of the Family, then you might be thinking that the events that happened couldn’t possibly be real. Is the story based on true events, or is it just a fictionalized tale?

The series introduces us to the Broberg family, whose lives become complicated when their daughter Jan is kidnapped twice over a period of years by a “charismatic, obsessed” family friend, Robert Berchtold, according to Peacock. Her parents are unprepared by the tactics he uses to exploit their vulnerabilities, trying to drive them apart, and turning their daughter against them.

How can a young girl be kidnapped twice by the same person? And how does Robert Berchtold remain in their lives? That all plays out in the Peacock series. So, where did the inspiration for this harrowing story come from?

Is A Friend of the Family on Peacock based on a true story?

It’s hard to believe, but A Friend of the Family is based on a true story. In reality, Jan Broberg was kidnapped twice by the family friend, Robert Berchtold. Once when she was 12 years old, and another time when she was 14. He sexually assaulted her multiple times, tricking her into believing that they have to produce a baby or the aliens will use her sister for the “mission” instead.

What complicated matters was the fact that her mother Mary Ann had an affair with Berchtold, and one time the “family friend” coerced her father Bob into giving him a hand job. He used those incidents to blackmail them, as they didn’t want that information to come out to their community.

Where to watch A Friend of the Family documentary

There is a documentary which came out in 2017, featuring the real Jan Broberg and both her parents. The Netflix film is called Abducted in Plain Sight and is currently streaming.

Watching the show and comparing it to the documentary, the Peacock series has done a really good job at telling the story the same way the Brobergs detailed the events. That’s probably partly due to the fact that Jan and her mother Mary Ann Broberg both serve as producers on the series.

Where is Robert Berchtold now?

If you watch the documentary, you’ll see just how disturbed Robert Berchtold was. Jan and her mother published a memoir, Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story.  Even years after not seeing him, with Jan in her 40’s, the disturbed man popped back into their lives after he showed up at a stop on one of Jan’s book tours, according to Distractify.

He was unfortunately never put behind bars for what he did to Jan, but after hitting a member of her security team at the book conference, he was found guilty of assault. He committed suicide right before his sentencing.

A Friend of the Family is now streaming on Peacock. New episodes are released weekly on Thursdays.