MS MICHELLE Rocca suffered four years of hell at the hands of her former fiance Mr Cathal Ryan, she told the High Court.
She had been a patient at the Rutland Centre in Dublin for four days in 1996 for stress and depression, she said under cross examination by Garrett Cooney SC, for Mr Ryan.
She had never received treatment at the centre for a drink problem.
She had gone for treatment after suffering four years of hell at the hands of Mr Ryan.
Earlier, Mr Cooney said Ms Rocca had alleged that Mr Ryan was the worse for drink on the night he was alleged to have assaulted her in order to blacken his name in the eyes of the jury.
Ms Rocca: "I am not here to blacken him. I mention that because it is the truth."
Mr Cooney said there would be evidence from Ms June Moloney that Ms Rocca had arrived at the party later than Mr Ryan and Ms Sarah Lindon.
Ms Rocca: "You say Ms Lindon. I did not know Cathal Ryan arrived with Ms Lindon." Mr Ryan arrived separately and Ms Lindon had travelled to the party in her own car.
Mr Cooney put it to Ms Rocca that she knew well before she arrived that Mr Ryan and Ms Lindon had been invited as a couple. Ms Rocca said Ms Moloney did not tell her that. When she had been talking to Mr Ryan, about getting married the previous Wednesday he did not tell her that he would be bringing a girlfriend to the party.
Mr Cooney asked her what justification she had for leaving the party and looking for Mr Ryan in the bedroom upstairs.
Ms Rocca denied she went searching for Mr Ryan. During the party she had looked across the room and saw Mr Ryan was not there. She went to the ladies and wondered where he was and thought that maybe he had gone home. The search for him was not premeditated.
She knew what Mr Ryan was like when he was drinking. He had often collapsed and she had to bring him home.
She said she happened to open the bedroom door where Mr Ryan was in bed. "It was entirely a coincidence that I came across Mr Ryan in bed." If the door had not been ajar she would not have gone in. She would probably have gone downstairs and asked where Mr Ryan was.
Mr Cooney put it to Ms Rocca that she had slipped in the line that Mr Ryan was frequently the worse for drink. This was without any foundation and was for the purpose of blackening him before the jury and for the press who were taking down every line she was saying.
Ms Rocca: "I am not here to blacken him. I mention that because it is true."
Asked by Mr Cooney how the public learned that she had been in the Rutland Centre, Ms Rocca said she believed it was through the tabloid newspapers.
As Miss Ireland she had come to terms with dealing with the press with, whom she had a good relationship.
Pressed by Mr Cooney about whether she had spoken to the press about herself and her personal affairs, she said she always tried to retain a dignified silence about her children.
While she had given one personal interview to the Sunday Independent, she certainly did not go around giving interviews to the tabloid press.