Bridgerton star Genevieve Chenneour has called for women’s safety in London to be prioritised – telling the Mail she has been chased, followed and ‘groped more times than I can count’ as well as being assaulted twice in a year.
The former Team GB artistic swimmer turned actress says women in the capital are enduring ‘a consistent pattern of violence, fear and institutional failure’ after being struck by a man who ‘locked onto’ her as she walked to an audition last week.
Her attacker, described as being black, 6ft 3ins and wearing dark clothing, elbowed and body-checked her with ‘full force’ near Oxford Circus. The random act of violence left her tearful and shaken up – but nobody stopped to check on her.
The attacker continued to walk on as if nothing had happened. She has not reported the assault to police – after feeling unsupported following an attempted mugging at a coffee shop in Kensington in February that left her with a concussion.
While prolific thief Zacariah Boulares, 18, is now serving a 22-month prison term for the would-be theft, an accomplice who came into the shop and threatened to stab Genevieve as she fought him off remains at large.
But the actress – known for her role as debutante Clara Livingston in the Netflix period drama – says the two attacks are but the tip of the iceberg amid a culture of toxic masculinity and a failure by the state to protect women.
Genevieve told the Daily Mail today: ‘On the wider issue of women’s safety in London… this is the conversation we should be centering.
‘What is happening in this city cannot be reduced to individual incidents. It is part of a consistent pattern of violence, fear and institutional failure.
‘Women have already adapted. We alter our clothes. We avoid wearing headphones. We share our live location. We take Ubers the moment it gets dark. This is no longer a luxury. It is a safety protocol. The burden is entirely on us, financially and emotionally.
‘I have been followed by a car of men. I have been chased down a road. I have been groped more times than I can count. These experiences accumulate and they shape your entire life. That is the reality for so many women.
‘And despite all of this, not one of the men involved has ever faced a meaningful consequence.’
Bridgerton star Genevieve Chenneour has told the Daily Mail that a man who attacked her in Oxford Circus last week ‘locked on’ seconds beforehand
The former Team GB swimmer is known for her role as Clara Livingston in Netflix’s Bridgerton
The incident came months after Genevieve had been targeted by a prolific mugger who tried to steal her phone at a cafe in Kensington
She added: ‘If women are relying on private transport because the state cannot protect us on the streets, then there is a very real question around why safer or subsidised travel options are not being prioritised for women.
‘The burden is entirely on us, financially and emotionally.’
Genevieve left London after the attempted mugging, moving back home with her mother to recover from the ordeal, but her life is tied to the capital as a hub for the global entertainment industry and she regularly travels in for work.
She had been planning to return to the city on a more permanent basis. After last week’s attack, she is once more reconsidering whether to come back.
‘My entire life has changed. My furniture is all in storage while I figure out where to live,’ she said.
‘I was preparing to move back into town as I have to be here for work. I don’t think I will now.’
The actress, who has just appeared in Hungarian historical action flick 1242: Gateway to the West, has suggested safer or subsidised travel options should be considered for women.
An online petition to create women-only carriages on the London Underground – as in countries such as Brazil, Japan and Malaysia – has more than 13,000 signatures. But some campaigners, including Patsy Stevenson, have questioned whether the priority should be on educating men – something Genevieve backs.
The Oxford Circus incident on November 20 happened as she was walking to an audition when the man walked towards her with, she said, ‘an intention to hurt or intimidate me’.
‘I noticed him looking at me from a short distance away, and something in his expression made me uneasy – it felt like he had locked onto me,’ she said.
‘I tried to move out of his path but couldn’t; there simply wasn’t space to step aside. When he reached me, he walked straight into me at full force, using his arm rigidly – bracing to make impact.’
The man struck her with the full force of his arm and body – and then kept walking as if nothing had happened.
The actress admits her temper got the better of her as she winced from the pain – but it failed to get a reaction from anyone: not her attacker, nor the busy legions of tourists and shoppers who pack out the West End’s high streets every day.
Genevieve continued: ‘It was completely deliberate. I shouted “you f****** c***” instinctively and immediately looked around to see if anyone had witnessed it.
‘He walked off without looking back at pace. Not even reacting to my shouting.
‘I asked a woman nearby if she’d seen what happened. She didn’t engage – she just asked “are you okay?” as a formality.
‘I was shaken and shocked afterwards. With the man not reacting and no witness it felt like I had imagined the whole thing. I was so shocked, and confused, and scared.’
The star recorded a tearful Instagram video (above) just minutes after the attack, urging women to be careful in London
Zacariah Boulares is serving a 22-month prison sentence for a number of thefts, including for his attack on Genevieve
The incident triggered a panic attack, with echoes of the incident in February as she tried to wrench her phone back from vicious teenage attacker Boulares.
Struggling to comprehend the incident, Genevieve phoned a friend who works in private security who helped her calm down before heading to her audition.
Once safely inside, she recorded a video for Instagram, still in her jacket and scarf, her eyes red from crying, warning women: ‘Ladies, please be careful.’
She has been contacted by other women sharing their own experiences of misogyny since – including high profile figures.
Among them is Kirsty Gallacher, the sports presenter who also shared online that she had been kicked in an unprovoked attack by a man dressed ‘all in black’ and ‘covered up‘, and actress Selma Blair, who detailed instances of harassment and sexual assault in her recent autobiography.
‘I have never felt so encouraged to keep speaking about this. It shows how exhausted and frightened women are, and how desperate we are for change,’ Genevieve said.
‘Women deserve so much better than the constant self monitoring required simply to exist safely.’
Despite the unprovoked and violent nature of what happened, Genevieve has decided not to report the incident to police, following the February incident in Kensington, which left her experiencing agoraphobia.
‘The man that threatened to stab me multiple times is still walking free and the police won’t even give me his name,’ she said.
‘I have had no support – nothing. My experience earlier this year left me feeling unsupported and I did not have the emotional resources to go through that process again.’
Official statistics for sexual assault bear this out: fewer than one in six rape victims, the vast majority of whom are women, report the attack to police. Around 2.6 per cent of reports lead to a charge or court summons, according to Home Office figures.
She added: ‘Women are not reporting less because attacks are decreasing.
‘They are reporting less because they often are not believed, their trauma responses are misunderstood and the process of seeking justice can itself be deeply retraumatising.’
Kirsty Gallacher is among the high-profile women to have contacted Genevieve after she shared her experience online – having also been the victim of an unprovoked assault in London
The Metropolitan Police has previously said officers investigated a 19-year-old man following the Kensington incident but no further action was taken.
She does not solely blame
Friends of the actress have previously said she has worked hard to rebuild her confidence after the February assault.
Genevieve is a qualified Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) boxer and has an extensive sporting background.
She fought off the thief because of her boxing experience, but she did advise the public not to do the same.
She told Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on This Morning at the time: ‘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. 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 [online] and realised, actually, a lot of people would just let them take the phone.’
