Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour says she fought for her life when a teenage thug grabbed her phone in a central London café.
The star said the teen’s accomplice threatened to stab her “multiple times” in a daylight attack that left her “concussed” and her dog “traumatized”.
The 27-year-old, who played Clara Livingston in Season 3 of the Netflix hit, had been having a coffee inside Joe & the Juice in the upmarket Kensington district on Feb. 8 when Zacariah Boulares, 18, launched his ambush, according to the New York Post.
Dressed in black and a navy baseball cap, Boulares had reportedly been sitting at a nearby table with an accomplice moments before springing into action—grabbing Chenneour’s phone.
But the actress, a former Team GB artistic swimmer, didn’t flinch.
“That was the moment something took over me and the physical fight became life or death in my mind,” she wrote on her Instagram stories Wednesday, accompanied by CCTV of the incident.
The footage shows Chenneour putting her arm out to block Boulares, forcing him to drop the phone as stunned onlookers watched him grapple with her friend.
Having picked up the device, she then whacked her robber in the head with it several times and appeared to kick him.
“The guy that walks up to me at the end was the man threatening to stab me multiple times,” she said. “It gives me chills.”
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Chenneour said the attackers “didn’t expect” her to fight back—but the ordeal has left lasting scars… to her as well as her beloved pooch.
“I was left with a concussion just before the Screen Actors Guild Awards and since then, I’ve felt constantly on edge,” she said.
“Even my dog was traumatized—now, if anyone touches me, he panics and tries to protect me. Getting a coffee shouldn’t be something you need your wits about you for.”
Boulares, an Algerian national with a long rap sheet that includes doing time for threatening to behead singer Aled Jones during a 2021 Rolex robbery, pleaded guilty to the attack in late May. His sentencing is set for June 17.
But Chenneour claims police let Boulares’ accomplice walk. “The man that threatened to stab me will not be going to court… I know karma will get him,” she wrote.
A spokesperson for The Metropolitan Police told the Daily Mail: “Police were called to a restaurant on Kensington High Street on Saturday, 8 February following reports of a theft and an assault.
“CCTV showed the suspect stealing a phone from the table and then assaulting a separate member of the public who confronted him.
“The victim of the assault was kicked and punched before the suspect left the premises. CCTV enquiries identified Zacariah Boulares as the suspect and he was arrested.”
They did not instantly respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
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