Jonathan Majors' Ex Recounts Alleged Fight Over a Text That Led to Actor's Arrest: It 'Took Me Aback'

Grace Jabbari testified about her previous relationship with Jonathan Majors on Tuesday

Grace Jabbari testified in court Tuesday that she was leaning against the shoulder of then-boyfriend Jonathan Majors in a hired car leaving dinner when she saw a message pop onto his phone: alongside a “romantic” song , the text read, “I wish I were kissing you.”

“It’s not what it seems, baby,” Jabbari, 30, claimed Majors told her. “Baby, it’s not what it seems.”

Jabbari, a British dancer, testified that on that night back in March, she grabbed Majors’ phone from his hand to more clearly read the message from the other woman.

Related: Jonathan Majors' Accuser Grace Jabbari Testifies About His 'Rage' as She Takes the Stand at Assault Trial

But in the moments that followed, Jabbari said, she felt the Creed III actor behind her and “what I knew to be the weight of him on top of me as he tried to pry the phone from my fingers.”

She claimed he twisted her right arm and as she curled her body “just trying to protect myself,” she said she felt “a really hard blow against my head" that “took me aback.”

Majors, 34, is facing two charges of assault in the third degree, aggravated harassment in the second degree, and harassment in the second degree for the alleged fight that ensued between the couple over that text message in March.

Majors, who faces up to one year in jail if convicted by a Manhattan jury of six, has maintained his innocence from the beginning and entered a plea of not guilty to all charges through his lawyers last week.

Majors, who had flipped open his gold-leafed Bible to read a passage before Jabbari arrived in court, did not look at his ex as she introduced herself to the jury.

Dressed in a gray-and-red plaid suit, Jabbari broke into tears on and off throughout several hours of testimony early Tuesday, dabbing at her face with a tissue, and, at one point, shielding her face from the jury as she tried to regain composure.

The former couple met on the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, for which Jabbari was hired as the on-set movement director in 2021, she said.

Majors, who had a lead role in the Marvel movie, struck up a conversation with Jabbari and suggested she show him around the London area, Jabbari testified.

Related: Jonathan Majors’ Assault Trial: Opening Arguments Address Race and Alleged 'Abuse'

Later, she said, his hair stylist “slipped me this piece of paper, so I opened it up and it was his number.” Then Majors returned to her side asking: “Am I going to see you later?”

They went to a bar the next day and spent nearly “every day together,” after that for several months, she said of a relationship that progressed “fast.”

At first, Jabbari said, Majors seemed “amazing, really kind and loving,” she said. “He told me that he loved me early on, which was overwhelming, but I loved it as well.”

“He wrote me poetry,” she said, adding that he also gave her love notes. “I felt very loved and cared for and felt seen. He loved me and I loved him.”

But by December of that first year, Jabbari said, she had seen another side of Majors. After off-handedly mentioning her ex, Jabbari recalled Majors’ demeanor shifted. Majors allegedly began yelling; Jabbari testified: “It was the first time I felt scared of him.”

From her reserved seat in the front row behind Majors, his current girlfriend, actress Meagan Good — who has attended the trial daily and sat by Majors' mother, at one point resting her head on his mother’s shoulder — turned away from Jabbari and stared straight ahead.

Jabbari noted other examples of Majors’ “rage and aggression" in her testimony, as well as demanding pressures throughout their relationship, noting that while filming for one film, which required him to body-build, he persuaded her to leave a music festival because her reception was bad and “this was a very hard week for him” and he needed her constant attention.

Related: Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good Kiss in Courtroom, Source Says Relationship 'Solidified' Before Trial

But the day of March 25, 2023, had felt special, Jabbari said, noting that Majors had spontaneously taken that morning off from work, and over brunch and coffee they had talked about marriage and the names of their future children.

But the mood shifted, she said, when, as they left for a play that night, Majors told her to button up more of her outfit. His mood took dark turns throughout the rest of the night, she said.

At a Japanese restaurant for dinner after the show, she said he was upset she had mentioned their fighting to his female manager, who she said he believed had told others.

Recalling his words at the table, Jabbari claimed that Majors threatened suicide.

“‘I’m a monster, I shouldn’t be here, now everyone knows,’ ” Jabbari claimed Majors told her, continuing: “‘I’m going to kill myself. I’m going to do it. This time I’m going to do it.’ ”

Jabbari said she talked him down, but the conversation again became heated when, back in the car, the text message from another woman flashed on his screen.

The fight, she said, became physical, and, trying to get him off of her, she told the jury she pushed back.

Eventually, she said, Majors asked the driver to stop, and video surveillance shown in court showed the couple struggling as Majors tried to push Jabbari back into the car.

"My body always felt very light in his hands,” Jabbari told the jury while getting emotional. Then, whispering, she added: “It just felt like he was forcing me to stay there” in the car.

Still fighting over the phone, the video surveillance showed Majors take off running with Jabbari in pursuit of him down the streets of Chinatown. “I was only thinking about my heart,” she said of ignoring the pain in her hand and head. “That type of pain: the infidelity.”

Related: Jonathan Majors Gets Support from Girlfriend Meagan Good and Her Mother at His Assault Trial

Months after the alleged incident, Majors filed a now-sealed counter-complaint against Jabbari, leading to her arrest in October. In that counter-complaint, he reportedly claimed that Jabbari had been “drunk and hysterical” that March night and had attacked him not only on the day she claims he attacked her, but on other previous occasions he had never before reported.

Prosecutors have declined to prosecute Jabbari, and last week Judge Michael Gaffey, who is presiding over the misdemeanor trial, called the case “very unusual,” contrasting the actor to indigent New Yorkers, who he suggested would not normally have been able to cross-file allegations against their accuser months after the fact, as Majors did.

Among the evidence presented at trial Tuesday were photos and audio recordings Jabbari had made of their alleged fights, something she said she had started to do to feel because “it just made me feel safer.”

Jabbari showed the jury a photo she said she had taken after a fight with Majors, who she said had thrown “anything within reaching distance," including candles, denting a bedroom wall with an object and shattering glass on the floor.

“I took the photo because the shift in his temper was something I was aware of, and I just wanted to remember," Jabbari said. "I knew I kept forgiving him, but I just wanted to have a bit of a memory of him.”

Related: Jonathan Majors Holds Hands with Meagan Good as He Arrives in Court for Trial Over Alleged Assault

In one recording, played for the jury, Majors allegedly tells Jabbari: “How dare you disturb the peace at our house” then proceeds to instruct her that as a “team” and “unit,” “the woman that supports me needs to be a great woman and make sacrifices for me.” He said he was looking for a “Michelle Obama” to his “Barack Obama.”

Jabbari claimed Majors, after fights, would threaten to kill himself and make her promise not to tell her family and friends about their fighting because he wanted to marry her “and this will ruin it.”

“I saw the temper as this thing he didn't want to have,” Jabbari told the jury. “I thought he can't control it, but he does love me.”

Of her own state of mind as their relationship continued, she said: “I just felt like I was existing in his world: emotionally and physically. I didn’t really feel my own autonomy at that point.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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