Sonya Deville opens up about being the survivor of an attempted home invasion.
In August 2020, Phillip Thomas II broke into Deville's home and attempted to kidnap her. On May 2, 2023, it was reported that he was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty on charges of kidnapping, armed burglary, and aggravated stalking.
Speaking with Maria Menounos, Deville discussed how she felt in the aftermath of the home invasion.
"There’s just so many layers to it. First of course, it’s fight or flight, and you’re just in the situation, and you deal with the situation, and that night after the incident, I thought I was gonna go back to the house and sleep there because I was stubborn and I was in shock, and I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know left from right at that point. Then, the sun goes down, and I’m uncontrollably shaking, and I’m in a hotel room under an alias name because I’m so paranoid that even though he’s arrested, he’s somehow gonna find me, and I have the dresser pushed up against the door. I made Mandy slide the dresser in front of the door on the fifteenth floor of this high rise, and paranoia starts to set in. It’s fight or flight, and then it’s shock, and I went into an autopilot of, ‘What needs to be done? What do we have to do?’ I don’t feel first. I do first, and then I feel later. You do what has to be done, and then you feel later, so I didn’t feel the full effect for what had happened for months. I was in full-blown fight-or-flight, I was living in fight-or-flight mode for months, maybe years," Deville said.
Deville then recalled how she lived in a safehouse for a month, and she called this period a "weird phase", as she went through something traumatic, but life went on. She described how she received some report from her parents as she continued to deal with the aftermath of the traumatic incident.
"I didn’t realize that until, no one knows this either, I went and lived in a safe house for a month because we didn’t know if he was gonna be able to get bail. It was a 24/7 armed security house. Guys with guns standing at each door, entrance of this home, in a secured location 24/7. It’s just weird. I would go work out at the local LA Fitness and he would come work out with me. That was a weird phase of my life. I didn’t know what was going on. My mom flew down and stayed with me for as long as she could, but then she has to go back to work. My dad came down right away, of course, then he has to go back to work. It’s this really weird thing where something so messed up happens to you, but then life goes on. So that was something that was hard for me to deal with at that time because I am such a ride-or-die and I feel my emotions very hard and true, so I’m like, wait a second, I almost had all this taken away from me, and then life just goes on," Deville said.
Deville also noted that she was thinking about buying a house and digging a moat with armed security guards and attack dogs, though she ultimately moved into a high-rise instead.
Deville took time away from WWE following the home invasion, and she returned to the company in Jaunuary 2021. She currently competes on WWE TV in a tag team with Chelsea Green.
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