Daria Berenato, AKA Sonya Deville.Photo: WWE
A previous version of this story said Berenato was the first openly gay WWE Superstar, rather than the first openly gay female WWE Superstar. We apologize for this error.
Daria Berenato made history when she became the WWE’s first openly gay female Superstar. But her journey to self-acceptance on the national stage wasn’t always smooth.
“Every day after school I would go to fight training and I just fell in love with it,” recounts Berenato. “And I was like, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to fight.’ And I was taking acting classes since I was about 14. So I wanted to act and fight and I really didn’t know that the two could be combined into one world until I got introduced to WWE in 2015.”
The intro came through Maria Menounos, who Berenato had befriended when she relocated to Los Angeles. Menounos was approached to appear on WWE competition seriesTough Enough, and though she wasn’t interested, she thought to recommend Berenato for the gig.
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Berenato appeared on the series' sixth season in 2015, falling in love with wrestling and the organization quickly. She made it four weeks into the show before her elimination — a process she calls “intense.” It was during filming that Berenato came out publicly, which was not necessarily her intention.
Daria Berenato, AKA Sonya Deville.WWE
Though her family and close friends had known Berenato is gay for years, she tells PEOPLE, “I wasn’t a hundred percent comfortable with myself and my sexuality at the time to be open about it.”
Berenato was asked about her relationship status as part of filming, “kind of being put on the spot,” she recounts. It was then she revealed she had a girlfriend. Now, the athlete thinks it was “the best thing that ever happened to me … because it probably would have taken me years to come to that level of openness.”
And neither was the WWE, with whom she signed shortly after herTough Enoughelimination.
“I would say since the day I started in WWE my sexuality — although it was very public — it was never a focal point of anything that I did in the ring,” the WWE performer says. “It really didn’t define me and I didn’t let it define me because I wanted to be part of who I was because of course it is. And I wanted to use my platform and my voice with WWE to speak out and create the conversation and create the change that I wanted to see in the world. … And so I’ve always received so much support from my colleagues.”
And fans have noticed, with Berenato noting that she has a “tribe” of fans in the LGBTQ+ community who have told her that her “coming out story has helped them be open with their sexuality and their identity.”
“Just hearing stuff like that really does make an impact on me,” she tells PEOPLE. “It really does encourage me to keep doing what I’m doing and using the voice and the platform that I’m blessed to have to kind of create that acceptance to the best of my ability so that they can live in a place where maybe it’s safer and more open to them.”
As Berenato expands her reach — she’slaunched a doughnut companywith fellow WWE star Mandy Rose called DaMandyz Donutz and she’s now serving as a WWE official — she’s hopeful to attract even more viewers to what’s happening onRawandSmackDown!
“WWE has all the different characters, there’s someone for everybody to relate to,” she says. “And that’s what I love about WWE really, it’s the diversity and really making a place where everybody can feel welcome.”
source: people.com
