SmackDown Live & Total Divas third power couple - the one not headed into a high-profile WrestleMania mixed tag - Dean Ambrose & Renee Young gave a great interview to Vegas Seven, a magazine from Las Vegas, where the duo currently resides.
Among the many topics they cover include the fan reaction the Intercontinental champion receives, especially from a certain segment of the WWE audience. The following conversation starts with an anecdote from Young about wanting to buy a shirt on Etsy that depicted Dean & Roman Reigns in a passionate embrace (for the Ambreigns shipper in all of us, natch), and leads to their talking about more extreme and less-healthy expressions of fandom:
Ambrose: I have a particular demographic. I think I appeal to a lot of people who might have problems of their own [and] they relate to me. It’s cool when you can help and inspire people and stuff, but sometimes people just attach to you for strange reasons, [and] their behavior is not the best. I’ve been stalked, I’ve been—
Young: I get many a death threat... there’s a lot of anti–Renee Young pages out there.
Ambrose: It’s actually good to make this point. But without going into too much detail, I’ve been stalked on the phone and my home and hotels, to the point where it’s a little Single White Female scary, though I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna get beaten up and kidnapped by a 15-year-old girl.
Young: I don’t know … there are a lot of steroids in foods now.
Ambrose: I’ve been stalked fairly regularly for the last two years. I have to go to great lengths to keep that shit at bay.
They’re trying to keep a sense of humor about what is actually a pretty scary reality - not all stalkers are 15 year olds, and even non-threatening seeming folks can find ways to do harm. It’s also impressive to see Ambrose being empathetic about the connection some fans have to him, even though in some cases it feeds behavior he clearly doesn’t want in his life & world.
But it’s the frightening downside to life in the 21st century public eye.
To read about the many positives of being young, gorgeous and successful, check out the whole interview here. You can also get our TD reviewer Caitlyn’s take and favorite quote from the article here.