Ben Roberts-Smith's ex-wife has told his defamation trial her "life was in complete chaos" after a woman turned up at their Queensland home to reveal their affair.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times and three journalists in the Federal Court over stories published in 2018.
He claims they contained false allegations of illegal killings in Afghanistan, bullying of colleagues and an act of domestic violence against a woman with whom he had an affair.
Emma Roberts, who was called as a witness by publisher Nine Entertainment, today recalled April 6, 2018, when she said the girlfriend used their housekeeper's phone to call her and said she was at their house.
While the woman insisted on speaking to her in person, Ms Roberts asked her housekeeper "is it what I think it is?", and the housekeeper confirmed.
Ms Roberts said she drove straight home and her parents were already there with the woman, who's been codenamed Person 17.
"She was crying," Ms Roberts told the judge.
"I asked her who she was and where she worked, where they had met, how long they had been seeing each other for."
Ms Roberts said she spent three hours reading text messages on the woman's phone.
"It was very clear that they were having an affair," Ms Roberts said.
"They were planning to be together."
Ms Roberts said the woman told her she had fallen pregnant during the relationship and the baby was "definitely Ben's", but she lost the child.
Ms Roberts recalled being "terrified" she might go to the media.
The woman had left by the time Mr Roberts-Smith arrived.
"He walked up and I asked him how he'll ever live with himself," Ms Roberts said.
The two sat up until midnight and he told her about the relationship, she said.
"My life was in complete chaos."
Ms Roberts said before meeting the woman, she had "suspicions" about an affair because she heard a second phone vibrate in their bedroom, Mr Roberts-Smith would turn his phone off during travel and he would take selfies that she "knew weren't for me".
She claimed Mr Roberts-Smith told her the only way they would "survive" if the issue hit the media would be to lie and say they were separated at the time.
"I didn't want to lie, there was enough lies," she said.
"And he pointed to our children … and he said, 'if you don't lie, you will lose them'."
Last year, Mr Roberts-Smith told the court they separated at the end of September 2017 and he met Person 17 the following month.
He has denied punching the woman in a Canberra hotel after a function at Parliament House in March, 2018.
Ms Roberts said when Person 17 was at their home, she was initially wearing large sunglasses covering a black eye.
Ms Roberts said the woman told her she drunkenly fell down stairs at Parliament House.
She told the court she asked Person 17 why she was not going to see Mr Roberts-Smith anymore.
"She pointed to her black eye and said 'because of this'," Ms Roberts said.
The court heard one of Ms Roberts's parents asked whether the woman meant Mr Roberts-Smith "did that to you", but she did not answer.
Ms Roberts has told the court the couple ceased living together and separated in January 2020.
She said early that year, she became suspicious Mr Roberts-Smith was "stashing" money he withdrew on a regular basis and recalled a conversation with her closest friend, Danielle Scott, about him "burying things" in the garden.
Ms Roberts said she discovered an "obvious" spot under a rock where she dug up a lunchbox containing several USB drives.
She said she asked Ms Scott to copy the contents before returning the lunchbox to the same spot.
In June that year, Mr Roberts-Smith requested access to their property to collect his belongings.
Ms Roberts said she took photographs of the garden before he arrived and then after, and messaged Ms Scott speculating that he needed to retrieve the lunchbox before the property was sold.
"I don't think Ben ever thought I knew what he was up to," she told the court.
Ms Roberts denied, under cross-examination, that the entire story about the USB drives was a "fabrication" designed to "harm" Mr Roberts-Smith.
She was pressed about why she didn't take any photographs of the lunchbox or its contents as Ms Scott was copying the files.
"Because her son came out and disturbed us," she replied.
"It was a very quick process."
Mr McClintock later followed up: "You were quite prepared to lie to harm my client, weren't you?"
"No," Ms Roberts replied.
Ms Roberts also denied she came to "loathe and detest" her ex-husband by 2020, after Mr McClintock read out excerpts of messages she sent to Ms Scott.
In some, she used expletives to describe him, spoke about his voice making "my skin crawl", and expressed a desire to "punch the f***ing c*** in the face".
Ms Roberts conceded she used "derogatory references" on and off and she was "very angry", but denied she "loathed" the veteran.
The trial, before Justice Anthony Besanko, continues.
