Kelly Landry was asked why she fears her estranged husband Anthony Bell.
"I fear he feels he's above everything and above the law. I feel that because he has unlimited means that he can basically throw money at everything and continue to intimidate me," Ms Landry said.
"I think the people he associates with... yep."
Ms Landry looked down.
After months of gossip about the break-up of Ms Landry, a former television presenter, and her husband, celebrity accountant Anthony Bell, the details of their acrimony were laid out under the fluorescent lights of the Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.
Police took out an interim apprehended violence order against Mr Bell on behalf of Ms Landry in January – days after the couple celebrated Mr Bell's victory in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race – and it is now the subject of a five-day hearing.
The AVO was sought on the basis of two alleged assaults, in which Mr Bell is accused of holding Ms Landry by the neck and throwing her on a bed in February 2012, and grabbing her during an argument in November last year.
Mr Bell has not been charged.
The court was played two videos and an audio recording of the November argument at the couple's Watsons Bay house.
Mr Bell was filmed asking her about meeting a friend at the pub, and saying: "lies, lies, lies".
In the audio recording, Mr Bell can be heard saying he's going to call police.
"I'm going to have the police come. Stop it, you're drunk," Mr Bell said.
Ms Landry replied: "You are carrying on, Anthony. You are acting psycho."
She then told Mr Bell she was behind a locked door, and said: "Something has flipped in your head tonight, and it's scary."
Mr Bell replied: "You're trying to set me up. Are you recording this again ... illegally? I'm not going to let this happen again. I'm not going to let you set me up. I'm scared of you, I'm so scared of you Kelly."
Ms Landry said "I wouldn't be in this room ... if I wasn't afraid", before sounds of movement, and her yelling "ow".
She told the court that Mr Bell grabbed her at the end of that argument, causing bruises on her arm.
Mr Bell's barrister, Ian Temby, QC, asked why Ms Landry didn't make a statement to police about the alleged assaults until this year.
"I was too afraid," she said.
Mr Temby asked what Ms Landry meant when she mentioned Mr Bell's associates, and whether she was referring to sportsmen such as former cricket captain Michael Clarke.
"Who are you prepared to name? Nobody?"
"I don't know all of them by name," Ms Landry replied, saying she was not referring to Mr Bell's celebrity clients.
She agreed that she initially told police she didn't feel threatened by Mr Bell and thought an AVO was an overreaction.
Ms Landry said she was advised by a psychologist and a divorce lawyer to report the alleged assaults.
The hearing continues before magistrate Robert Williams.