MANHATTAN (CN) — The British ex-girlfriend of actor Jonathan Majors took the witness stand on Tuesday morning, recollecting the Marvel star’s controlling tendencies and mood swings as background to New York prosecutors’ domestic violence charges.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has accused Majors in a set of misdemeanor charges of assaulting his former girlfriend, dancer/choreographer Grace Jabbari, in the backseat of a taxi last March after she read a romantic text message sent to his phone by another woman.
Prosecutors claim Majors grabbed Jabbari’s hand with such force he fractured one of her fingers, then pulled her arm behind her back and struck her on the side of the head. During opening arguments on Monday, the prosecutors told jurors the March incident was the latest flareup in an apparent pattern of Majors' physical and emotional abuse of Jabbari.
On direct questioning Tuesday morning, Jabbari happily recalled the couple’s honeymoon period in England, after they met on of the set of the Marvel movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” as “amazing, really kind and loving,” but said Majors’ pattern of manipulative jealousy and mood swings later took over their relationship.
“I just felt like I was existing in his world, emotionally and physically, in all these ways that didn’t fulfill my autonomy,” she said.
Jabbari testified the first time she felt afraid of Majors during their relationship occurred after he shouted at her about his feelings of embarrassment in response to an offhand comment mentioning an ex-boyfriend’s pet dog.
“I just knew to never mention my ex again, and mention anyone I dated before,” she said.
In July 2022, nine months before the night of the charged assault, Majors smashed candles in glass containers in a Los Angeles hotel during an outburst of anger while Jabbari was visiting, she testified, holding back tears at times.
“It was violent temper, he was full of rage and aggression. He was throwing things, shouting in my face, throwing objects,” she said. “He was really shouting. Just really, really, really angry.”
Jabbari said she knew Majors was experiencing stress at the time from physical training in preparation for a movie he was shooting, where he played an aspiring professional bodybuilder. He later thanked her for patience during the period of rapid physical transformation for the role, she testified.
After cooling down from the fit of temper, Jabbari said, Majors then experienced an emotional crash.
“Then he started like really crying, and shaking, saying self-hatred things, saying he was a monster,” she said.
She said the same pattern of violent outburst followed by depressive crash repeated in September that year, when Majors brought up plans to commit suicide after he stomped her plastic headphones to bits during an explosive fit of anger.
“He said that he was a monster and that he wants to kill himself, and that he’s put actions in place to do so,” she testified. “He scared me when he said things like ‘it’s in place’ and ‘it’s in motion’.”
Jabbari mentioned several times that Majors would express his disappointment with her as a romantic partner, calling her “an alcoholic” and “an embarrassment” who did not fulfill her duties of the “plan” of their relationship.
In an audio recording entered into evidence on Tuesday, Majors angrily told Jabbari she needed to act like the Michelle Obama to his Barrack. “The woman that supports me, that I support… needs to be a great woman,” he said in the recording surreptitiously captured by Jabbari.
“I’m a great man… I am doing great things for my culture and for the world,” Majors continued in the audio recording. “That is actually the position I am in.”
Attorneys for Majors argue that he was the true victim of the domestic altercation with Jabbari, claiming he was left bloodied by the attack, while she spent the rest of the night clubbing in Lower Manhattan.
Majors’ bodybuilding movie, “Magazine Dreams,” was set to be released in December 2023, but the Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures distributor removed from its release schedule in response to both the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and the assault allegations against Majors.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). Visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
Follow @jruss_jruss
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Jerry Seinfeld’s commitment to the bit April 26, 2024