Tearful Bridgerton star ‘attacked in the street’ just months after phone mugging

Bridgerton star Genevieve Chenneour has broken down in tears after being attacked in the street for the second time this year.

The 27-year-old actress – who has played Clara Livingston in the third and fourth seasons of the hit Netflix show – was on her way into an audition in central London at the time of the alleged attack.

She shared a heartbreaking video to her Instagram Stories on Thursday afternoon following the incident after a man hit her out of nowhere close to Oxford Circus.

The terrifying moment came just months after she was targeted by a violent phone thief in a cafe in west London.

‘Guys, literally five minutes before my audition, I was walking around the corner at Oxford Circus and this guy just looks at me, and targets me, and f***ing hits me,’ she said in the video.

‘I’m like, against the wall, and I was right about to arrive for my audition. So I had to come in, and I’m trying to gather myself, but I’m so shaken.’

She referenced the ‘phone attack’ from earlier in the year, and admitted the latest incident has left her scared to be around central London again.

‘I’d just got my confidence up and was looking at moving back,’ she admitted.

Chenneour- who described the alleged attacker as ‘about 50 years old, 6ft 3in, Black, wearing a dark-coloured hat and black clothes’ – added that she was ‘so shaken’ but was still going ahead with her audition.

‘I couldn’t walk anywhere – he was just looking at me, and he just f***ing hit me. It was a full grown man. I’m so shaken,’ she continued.

‘I’ve got to try and prepare for this audition. They’ve really kindly given me this room above the audition room and said I can just take my time and gather myself.

‘So I’m just going to take, like, half an hour, I think. I keep on having panic attacks.’

In another post on Instagram, she noted she had ‘been to the police so many times for help because of men’, but claimed ‘nothing has been done’.

‘I’ve had enough. My rage is huge,’ she added, before referencing a stalker she had while working on Bridgerton who sent her ‘weird love poems’.

‘I’m trying to work. You have no right to me,’ she wrote.

Earlier this year, she revealed on This Morning that she was targeted by a prolific thief and fought him off in a ‘life and death situation’.

‘I had a bit of a sixth sense that something wasn’t quite right, as woman you have that kind of intuition,’ she said. ‘I could feel people moving around me in a different way but I only became aware of it once the incident had happened.’

Chenneour was waiting for her order at the chain cafe on Kensington High Street, London when the thief, who the Daily Mail identified as Zacariah Boulares, 18, quietly snuck up behind her and grabbed her phone, which was placed on the counter.

The actress sprang into action as she spun around and grabbed his arm while another man came to her aid.

CCTV footage showed her freeing her phone from his grasp as she pushed him to the ground and fought back, while at one point another man threatened to stab Chenneour.

She continued: ‘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.’

In court on May 29, Boulares pleaded guilty to stealing her phone as well as assaulting another customer.

This Is Not Right

On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a year-long campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.

With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.

You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.

Read more:

• Introducing This Is Not Right: Metro’s year-long violence against women campaign
• Remembering the women killed by men in 2024