Grace Jabbari, Jonathan Majors Ex, Sues Actor for Defamation and Assault

On Tuesday, Grace Jabbari filed a civil suit in the Southern District of New York against Jonathan Majors for defamation, malicious prosecution, assault, and battery. The filing includes multiple instances in which Majors allegedly caused harm to his former partner—from physical to mental via false and defamatory statements even after a jury found him guilty of harassment as well as reckless assault in the third degree in December 2023.

“It takes true bravery to hold someone with this level of power and acclaim accountable,” Jabbari’s attorney Brittany Henderson said in a statement to Jezebel. “Bravery that Grace Jabbari has demonstrated at every stage of the legal process. We strongly believe that through this action, truth and transparency will bring Grace the justice that she deserves.”

Among the five causes of action listed in the civil suit are intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and defamation. Majors, Jabbari claims in the filing, “has consistently engaged in an escalating pattern of abusive behavior towards women since as early as 2013.”

Majors’ alleged physical abuse is described in extensive detail in the filing and notably includes several instances in addition to the March 2023 assault in New York City that were barred from the 2023 trial. According to Jabbari, there was a similar assault that took place in London in September 2022. The filing accuses Majors of throwing Jabbari onto the hood of a car and covering her mouth to stifle her cries for help. Later that same day, when the then-couple entered their home, Majors allegedly banged Jabbari’s “head against the marble floor while strangling her until she felt she could no longer breathe.” She also alleges that Majors threatened to kill her. After this alleged incident, Jabbari said she suffered a head injury and could “barely move without pain…[and] have a constant ringing headache.” An audio recording of the fight that preceded the alleged physical abuse in which Majors told Jabbari she needed to uphold the standards of Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama was played at the trial in December.

Additionally, Jabbari accused Majors and his legal team of defaming and disparaging her since the trial’s conclusion. Majors’ interview with ABC News in January, in which he claimed he “never hit a woman…My hands have never struck a woman,”  is specifically referenced in the suit.

“When publicly confronted with Grace’s numerous allegations of abuse, Majors has called her a liar at every turn and very specifically claimed that he has never put his hands on a woman, with the goal of convincing the world that Grace is not a victim of domestic abuse but instead a crazy liar who should be treated as such,” the filing claimed.

Priya Chaudhry, Majors’ attorney, “continued to double down on the defamatory attack,” the lawsuit alleges, noting her gratuitous profile published by The Cut in February. “Honestly, I don’t give a shit…” Chaudhry told the publication. “The idea that I should coddle [Jabbari feels like suggesting] I should coddle the woman who accused Emmett Till.”

The same day the profile went live, so did a New York Times investigation in which two more women who dated Majors accused him of abuse. One woman, who was engaged to Majors from 2015 to 2019, alleged that he choked her and threatened to kill her. Another, who dated him from 2013 to 2015, said that when she confronted Majors with evidence of him cheating, he threatened to kill himself. Jabbari, of course, has repeatedly made similar—if not exact—allegations of Majors.

Jabbari’s suit lists five causes of action, including intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and defamation. She is suing for compensatory damages and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

Majors will be sentenced on April 8. Priya Chaudhry did not immediately respond to Jezebel’s request for comment.