Chilling Story of How Sandra Bullock Hid in Closet When a Stalker Broke into Her House

• A stalker once broke into Sandra Bullock's home while she was sleeping.
• The actress hid inside her closet and was relieved she had sent her son to his nanny's home that night.
• Years later, Bullock continues to struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, one she uses several coping mechanisms for.

The personal lives of celebrities are often entangled with their careers. Private information gets leaked to the public, which can pose unwarranted threats to their security.

Sandra Bullock is one of the many celebrity victims of home intruders, an experience that was harrowing for the "Gravity" star. While on "Red Table Talk" with Jada Pinkett-Smith and Willow Smith, she recounted the story that traumatized her for years.

The actress was asleep in her Los Angeles home in 2017 when she heard a loud sound. She hid inside her closet and began thinking that things wouldn't end well.

It was the one night that Bullock didn't have her son Louis Bardo with her. He was at his nanny's apartment down the street because Bullock had been out late that night. "I wasn't the same after that," Bullock admitted. "I was unraveling."

On the night of the incident, an intruder rang Bullock's doorbell multiple times before finally letting himself in. Bullock caught a glimpse of the stranger through her bedroom door.

Terrified, she ran into a closet, one with heightened security features, and hid herself inside. It was a door that could only be opened and locked from the inside and could not be penetrated easily from the outside.

It was then that the actress called 911 for help. It was a chilling conversation, with Bullock's voice shaking as she retold the ordeal.

The Aftermath of the Situation

The incident was brutal for Bullock, leaving her with the trauma she needed to work on. She didn't want the trauma to pass on to her son, so she knew she needed to do the work to heal herself.

The man turned out to be Joshua James Corbett, a 39-year-old with eight firearms registered to his name. He had been stalking the actress for several days before he made an attempt to enter her home.

Authorities caught the man, and he was brought to court. He pleaded no contest to stalking and first-degree residential burglary, both felony offenses.

Corbett was sentenced to five years probation. Bullock also got a 10-year protective order against him, and the man was also demanded by the court to receive mental health treatment.

In 2018, Corbett had an altercation with the Los Angeles Police Department outside his home. It was a silent altercation with no weapons involved, but still, it ended badly as Corbett took his own life that day.

Bullock Had Two Other Stalkers

Corbett wasn't Bullock's first stalker. Another time, Bullock's stalker was a woman named Marsha Valentine. The woman would appear on Bullock's lawn, placing palm leaves in specific arrangements and leaving animal hair all over it.

Investigators believed Valentine was doing cult-like activities, which she used to connect with the actress. Things turned violent when Bullock and her then-husband Jesse James saw the woman sleeping in front of their home.

James confronted the woman and took pictures of the incident and her license place. Valentine reacted by trying to drive over James several times. Fortunately, James was unharmed, and he was able to call the police. Valentine was arrested, and she paid a $25,000 bail.

2002 was an important year for the actress, having executive produced her first TV series, and starred in "Two Weeks Notice" with Hugh Grant.

Another stalker, Thomas James Weldon, harrassed Bullock and all those close to her with phone calls and faxes. He had schizophrenia and thought he could get into a relationship with Bullock.

He tried to contact her in any way he could and even showed up in places he knew she'd be. Eventually, the court filed a restraining order against him, and he needed to stay at least 200 feet away from Bullock until 2009.

When Weldon's restraining order was still in effect, he tried different ways to reach Bullock. He sent her disturbing messages, asking her to be with him.

Bullock asked for the restraining order to be extended but to no effect. In 2010, the man tracked Bullock to her home in Wyoming.

Before reaching the home, Weldon checked himself into an emergency room. Then, he told the doctor he believed Bullock was trying to speak to him telepathically.

Bullock hired the best possible lawyers to file a case against Weldon. She asked the court to extend the restraining order against the man and did everything she could to stay protected.

Bullock practiced Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, or EDMR, to help her process what happened.

Years later, the actress did not know that the worst was yet to come. Her 2014 home invasion was something she could have never expected and one that left her violated.

The actress has gone the extra mile to protect herself in the past couple of years, especially now that she has two children to care for. Bullock adopted Louis and Laila on different occasions and raises both as a single mom.

After the whole ordeal, the "Miss Congeniality" actress was distraught. She'd find herself crying in unexpected moments.

She knew the situation affected her son and, now, her daughter. So, she was determined to move past it in and begin anew. Speaking about it, she said:

"I thought to myself, I’m a single parent, and this child is going to absorb nothing but fear and trauma and shame from me in the most pivotal times of his life, and I was like, I don't want to drop that load of baggage onto my beautiful child."

Bullock practiced Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, or EDMR, to help her process what happened. It helped her recover from the trauma and other mental health problems.