Jonathan Majors’ ex sues actor for battery and defamation

MANHATTAN (CN)  — “Creed III” actor Jonathan Majors was accused of verbal and physical abuse in a civil lawsuit filed on Tuesday by his ex-girlfriend, British dancer Grace Jabbari, who testified against him as the prosecution’s victim-witness in his criminal trial in December 2023.

Jabbari, who dated Majors from 2021 through 2023, accused the actor of a “lengthy pattern” of domestic violence and abusive behavior toward her while they were a couple, which continued after they split, with defamatory attacks on her character during his trial last year in Manhattan criminal court.

The 23-page civil complaint filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York includes counts of battery, assault, infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and defamation — echoing many of the charges from Majors' criminal trial.

A Manhattan jury found Majors guilty of third-degree reckless assault and second-degree harassment in a split verdict last December, and he is expected to be sentenced in April.

The 34-year-old actor faces up to a year in jail.

Reprising several episodes that she recalled on the witness stand in Majors’ criminal trial, Jabbari accuses him in her civil complaint of exploding into violent rage at a hotel in Atlanta early in the relationship, while the couple was living together in England and inside of a private taxi in Manhattan on the night of their breakup in March 2023.

"As a direct and proximate result of defendant Majors’ intentional action constituting battery, the plaintiff has in the past suffered and, in the future, will continue to suffer physical injury, pain, emotional distress, psychological trauma, mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, loss of dignity, invasion of her privacy and a loss of her capacity to enjoy life, as well as other damages,” Jabbari says in the complaint.

Jabbari’s malicious prosecution charge accuses Majors of initiating criminal proceedings against her in June 2023, three months after the taxi altercation in March that resulted in Majors’ arrest on assault and harassment charges.

“Consistent with his pattern of intimidating Grace, Majors filed the knowingly false criminal complaint and immediately disseminated the news to national and international media outlets in an effort to use his fame to cause the public to lash out against Grace and inflict on Grace extreme emotional distress,” Jabbari says.

Jabbari turned herself in to the NYPD last October, but the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office ultimately declined to prosecute the case, citing a lack of prosecutorial merit.

Jabbari also says Majors’ defamed her in a series of denial statements during and after his criminal trial, along with his trial strategy of victim-blaming and portraying her as a liar.

“Put bluntly, Majors’s defense to Grace’s descriptions of the numerous acts of violence Majors perpetrated against her was to brazenly defame her and label her a liar on all claims,” she says in the complaint.

Represented by Edwards Henderson partner Brittany Henderson, Jabbari requested a jury trial.

Majors’ defense attorney Priya Chaudhry told Courthouse News Jabbari’s complaint “is no surprise,” and said his counsel are preparing to file counterclaims against Jabbari.

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