In a new interview with Good Morning America, Jonathan Majors said he was “absolutely shocked and afraid” when a jury found him guilty of assaulting his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. Speaking for the first time since the December verdict in his domestic-violence case, the actor said he has no idea how Jabbari was injured and claimed he has “never hit a woman.” “I’m standing there and the verdict comes down,” he told ABC’s Linsey Davis, “and I say, ‘How was that possible based off the evidence, based off the prosecution’s evidence, let alone our evidence? How is that possible?’”
Majors’s denial comes on the heels of his conviction on misdemeanor assault and harassment charges. Though he was acquitted of a more serious charge, assault in the third degree with intent to cause physical injury, jurors still decided that he had recklessly injured Jabbari during an incident in March 2023. The couple had been in a chauffeured car when Jabbari saw text messages from another woman on Majors’s phone; when she grabbed it, Jabbari said Majors twisted her arm and struck her head, leaving the choreographer with a fractured finger and a gash behind her ear. While the jury found him guilty of reckless assault, Majors told Davis, “I was reckless with her heart, not her body.” He continued: “I’m an athlete. I’m a sportsman. I know my body. I know how it moves. I know my strength, or lack thereof, you know? None of that was employed on her.”
The actor’s defense had argued that Jabbari was the one who assaulted Majors, and that he bolted from the car to get away from her. “She went to grab the phone. I held the phone. I pulled the phone back. She came on top of me, squeezed my face, slapped me,” Majors told Davis. “That’s all I remember.” In response to video footage that appears to show Majors shoving Jabbari back into the car, he told the anchor, “I’m trying to get rid of her. I’m trying to get away from her.”
Throughout the trial, Majors’s lawyers focused on race as part of their defense, arguing that police saw Majors as inherently dangerous and Jabbari, who is white, as innocent. In the GMA interview, Majors pointed to surveillance footage that shows Jabbari chasing after him. If “You saw a Black man chasing a young white girl down the street, screaming and crying, that man is gonna be shot and killed in the streets of New York City,” he told Davis.
Majors added that he believes the only mistake he made was not breaking up with Jabbari sooner. “If I leave the relationship, none of this is happening,” he told Davis. “If I’m man enough or brave enough to say, ‘I want to see somebody else,’ or, ‘I’m done now,’ I’m not in that car. I’m responsible for those things. None of her injuries.”
A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on the interview, saying, “We do our speaking in court, where a Manhattan jury convicted Mr. Majors of Assault in the Third Degree and Harassment in the Second Degree.” But Brittany Henderson, who represents Jabbari, said in a statement that, “It is not at all surprising that Mr. Majors continues to take no accountability for his actions. The timing of these new statements demonstrates a clear lack of remorse for the actions for which he was found guilty and should make the sentencing decisions fairly easy for the Court.”
During the interview, Majors also expanded on comments he made in a recording that was played during the trial, in which he calls himself a “great man” and implores Jabbari to act more like Coretta Scott King or Michelle Obama. “It was me trying to give an analogy of what it is I’m aspiring to be, you know, these great men — Martin, President Obama — and trying to give a reference point to that,” he told Davis. “I was attempting to motivate, to enlighten, to give perspective as to what it is I was hoping to get out of the relationship.” Majors said that since his conviction, he’s been spending time with his new girlfriend, the actress Meagan Good, and his dogs. He called Good “an angel” and said, “She’s held me down like a Coretta.”
While Majors was set to be a fixture in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio dropped him after he was convicted of assault. The actor thinks his career deserves a second chance. “I do think I’ll work in Hollywood again,” he said during the GMA interview. “I pray I do.”
Majors told Davis that he plans to appeal his conviction; his sentencing is scheduled for February 6.
This post has been updated.