Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend testified Wednesday that she did not want to involve the police after he allegedly assaulted her in March, and that she regretted getting him in trouble.
On her second day on the witness stand, Grace Jabbari, 30, tearfully spoke about the aftermath of the incident that resulted in Majors’ arrest. She told jurors that Majors had previously warned her about trusting the police because of “what they would do to him as a Black man.”
“I didn’t want to put him in that situation,” she said.
It was Majors, not Jabbari, who called the police the next morning. His defense attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said in her opening statement that Majors did so out of concern for Jabbari’s mental state. Majors had spent the prior night in a hotel and returned to their Chelsea residence to find Jabbari asleep on the floor.
Jabbari testified that she woke up to “loads of officers” and was hesitant but eventually told officers that she had sustained injuries from Majors.
She recalled feeling anxious after he was arrested. “I felt like it was my fault,” she said. “I should have lied and said nothing happened so he wouldn’t be in trouble or upset with me. I wanted to fix it.”
Majors, a star of “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” is on trial for three misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment. He could face up to a year in prison if convicted.
The initial charges also included strangulation, but Jabbari testified that she asked for that charge to be dropped because she “didn’t understand the context around” it.
The domestic abuse trial stems from an incident that transpired as Majors and Jabbari took a private car service from Brooklyn to their Chelsea apartment on March 25. Jabbari testified on Tuesday that she saw a text message on Majors’ phone from another woman that read, “Wish I was kissing you right now.” According to Jabbari, she took the phone out of his hands to see who sent the message and he forcefully retrieved it. This caused bruising, swelling and “excruciating” pain, according to Jabbari. The jury was shown photos of Jabbari’s swollen finger and a cut behind her ear that she took the day after the alleged assault.
Jabbari said Majors found her asleep on the floor because she was exhausted. The prior night, she said she took two over-the-counter sleep-aid tablets, but still struggled to get rest because of physical discomfort.
“I couldn’t lie on the right side of my body,” she told jurors. “Everywhere hurt. I’m used to muscle aches; pain inflicted in other ways [as a dancer]. This felt so uncomfortable.”
She said she noticed in the morning that her finger had turned black and there was dried blood behind her ear. Jabbari told jurors, “I made a clear decision this was not a good relationship. I wanted to get out of the apartment. [But] I needed a few more hours of sleep. I could barely move my body.” She took a break from packing and lay down on the floor before falling asleep.
The defense has argued that Jabbari fabricated the allegations to get back at Majors after their breakup. “This is a case about the end of a relationship, not about a crime… at least not one that Mr. Majors committed,” Chaudhry said in her opening statement. She also alleged it was Jabbari who assaulted Majors in the vehicle that night, ripping two buttons off his coat and tearing the pocket “with her bare hands” — not the other way around.
As Jabbari delivered her hours-long testimony, Majors, 34, sat at the defense table at the New York City Criminal Court. The only time he spoke was to assure the judge that he would abide by the order of protection, which means the two parties cannot have any direct or third-party contact. His current girlfriend, Meagan Good, has attended each day of the proceedings.
During cross-examination, which began on Wednesday afternoon, Chaudhry asked Jabbari about Majors’ upbringing, as well as their two-year relationship history. They met in August 2021 on the London set of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” where Majors had a key acting role and Jabbari worked as a movement coach. Jabbari, a professional dancer, is a resident of the United Kingdom.
The defense also brought up a September 2022 audio recording that played on Tuesday during the domestic assault trial. Majors was heard describing himself as a “great man” who does “great things for my culture and for the world” and demanded that Jabbari behave like Michelle Obama or Coretta Scott King — the wives of Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr.
Chaudhry sought to give the jury some context to help explain why Majors was scolding Jabbari on the recording. She asked Jabbari if her drinking habits had been a “constant source of tension” in the relationship.
“He would get upset with me and use my drinking as an excuse,” Jabbari said.
Earlier in the day, Jabbari became emotional and briefly left the room to collect herself after she spoke about the trial’s impact on her life.
“I’m a very private person,” she told the jury. “It’s been very difficult to see a lot of unwanted attention. I like to keep quiet.”