Jonathan Majors’ ex says the actor has a “violent temper” that left her fearful before alleged assault

Majors scribbled notes to his lawyer or thumbed through his gold-leafed Bible as Grace Jabbari recounted him allegedly throwing objects and threatening to kill himself.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jonathan Majors’ former girlfriend told a Manhattan jury that the actor was prone to fits of rage that escalated in the months leading up to his arrest for allegedly attacking her in the backseat of a car last spring.

During hours of tearful testimony on Tuesday, Grace Jabbari described Majors as a controlling, manipulative partner who hurled household objects at the wall, tried to control her socially, and repeatedly threatened to take his own life in the aftermath of their fights.

“It felt like I was walking around on eggshells,” said Jabbari, a 30-year-old professional dancer from the United Kingdom. “I had to be perfect.”

Majors avoided eye contact with Jabbari during the morning testimony, scribbling notes to his lawyer or thumbing through his gold-leafed bible as she recounted his struggle to contain his “violent temper.”

The testimony came on the second day of the trial against Majors, a 

“I’m a great man. A great man!” Majors declared. “There needs to be a great woman who makes sacrifices.”

Though Jabbari did not describe Majors laying his hands on her prior to the March 25th incident, she said that she “feared him physically quite a lot.” On several occasions, she said, Majors threatened suicide, begging her not to tell anyone about his outbursts.

“He said he was a monster and he wanted to kill himself and he put actions in place to do so,” Jabbari said.

Prosecutors have sought to paint the episodes as part of a “cruel and manipulative pattern of abuse” that culminated with Majors striking his girlfriend on the drive back from dinner in Brooklyn this past March.

On the night, Jabbari says Majors pulled her finger, twisted her arm behind her back and hit her in the face after she grabbed the actor’s phone out of his hands to read a text message sent from another woman that read: “Wish I was kissing you right now.” Police said Jabbari was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

Attorneys for Majors have said that Jabbari was the aggressor in the situation. During their opening arguments Monday, one of his defense attorneys, Priya Chaudhry, described Jabbari as a spurned lover who was seeking “to ruin Jonathan Majors and take away everything he has spent his whole life working for.”

Chaudhry also invoked Majors’ race – he is Black, Jabbari is white – as a potential reason that he was blamed for the confrontation.

Jabbari is expected to return to the stand Tuesday afternoon.

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