Jonathan Banks, Grace Jabbari Settle Defamation and Assault Lawsuit

Ryan J. Farrick — November 23, 2024

Gavel on copy of lawsuit; image by Wirestock, via Freepik.com.

“Grace Jabbari has exhibited tremendous courage throughout this very long and difficult process,” lawyer Brittany Henderson said in a statement. “We hope that she can finally put this chapter behind her and move forward with her head held high.”

Actor Jonathan Majors and his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, have agreed to settle Jabbari’s defamation and assault lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

“Grace Jabbari has exhibited tremendous courage throughout this very long and difficult process,” lawyer Brittany Henderson said in a statement. “We hope that she can finally put this chapter behind her and move forward with her head held high.”

According to ABC News, an attorney for Jabbari said that his client and Majors had agreed to settle their civil claims out of court.

“We are happy to announce that the lawsuit Grace filed against Jonathan Majors was successfully settled,” attorney Brad Edwards said in a statement shared with ABC News. “It took tremendous courage for Grace to pursue case. We are happy to have helped her close this chapter favorably so that she can move forward and begin to finally heal.”

Jabbari, notes ABC News, filed her claims against Majors at about the same time that he was sentenced to domestic violence classes in April. She said that Majors physically abused her, and then defamed her by publicly denying the assault in a televised interview.

Scales of Justice. Image via Flickr/user:mikecogh. (CCA-BY-2.0).

“I have never hit a woman,” Majors said at the time. “I have never. My hands have never struck a woman. Ever.”

In the lawsuit, attorneys for Jabbari indicated that Majors’ statements could be defamatory.

“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 lawsuit alleged.

Jabbari said that Majors was, in effect, trying to tarnish Jabbari’s reputation by positing her as a liar and an opportunist.

“Now that Majors can no longer physically abuse Grace, he has resorted to very publicly abusing her reputation,” the lawsuit said. “Following his arrest, Majors immediately implemented an extensive media campaign smearing Grace, claiming that he was ‘completely innocent,’ ‘is probably the victim,’ that he ‘did not assault her whatsoever,’ and that ‘this woman was having an emotional crisis, for which she was taken to a hospital’.”

ABC News notes that Majors was eventually found guilty of one count of misdemeanor third-degree assault and one count of second-degree harassment, but was acquitted on two other assault counts and one count of aggravated harassment.

Since his conviction, Majors, who had been cast in Marvel movies and “Creed III,” has been cut from future Marvel films and dropped by his P.R. and management firms.