“Bridgerton” actress Genevieve Chenneour isn’t easily rattled — at least, that’s what footage of an attempted phone robbery earlier this year seems to show. Chenneour, a former Amateur Boxing Association qualified boxer who also represented Great Britain at international artistic swimming events, told ITV this week that defending herself during the thwarted attack “was an instinct.”
Chenneour admitted the moment transpired quickly.
“I had a bit of a sixth sense that something wasn’t quite right, as woman you have that kind of intuition and I could feel people moving around me in a different way but I only became aware of it once the incident had happened,” she explained.
“I don’t know if I would advise anybody else to do it, I think I have very quick reactions, thanks to having three brothers growing up and I’m an aviated carded boxer,” she explained. ““I think it just was an instinct, I also do a lot of fight training for work and acting … I thought that was a normal reaction and I read all the comments [from the CCTV footage] and realized, actually a lot of people would just let them take the phone.”
Her attacker ramped things up and threatened to stab her, so Chenneour responded with the same energy. “It became a real matter, in my mind, life and death. So, I did things like, I remember kicking him back with my leg to create space in case he had a weapon on him … It was just a life-changing, crazy moment.”
Chenneour also said there’s a silver lining to the incident.
“It opened up so many conversations with people that I know and don’t know and I’ve been really made aware of how many people are living with that anxiety, men that have had their phone stolen and women. I can only talk from a woman’s perspective but I do know that men are dealing with that same level of anxiety.”
“I didn’t want to go outside. I mean as a woman we already, I think, have our wits about us around strangers and random men,” she said. “So, to have this happen to me while dealing with that base level that a lot of women have, just made me quite agoraphobic. Leaving the house was really hard.”
The thief, who was identified as Zacariah Boulares, also attacked TV host Aled Jones in 2023.
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