Originally Published: 27 APR 23 12:20 ET

Updated: 27 APR 23 13:31 ET

By Aaron Cooper, CNN

(CNN) -- E. Jean Carroll returned to the stand on Thursday in her civil battery and defamation trial against Donald Trump, with the columnist telling the jury about why she was suing the former president, and what had happened to her since she filed the suit.

"I think rape is one of the most violent and horrible things that can happen to a woman or a man," Carroll said.

"I don't particularly like attention because -- I'm suing. Getting attention for being raped is not -- It's hard. Getting attention for making a great three-bean salad, that would be good," she said.

Carroll is suing Trump for battery and defamation, alleging that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her years later when she went public with the allegations. Trump has repeatedly denied her allegations.

Asked by her attorney Mike Ferrara on Thursday if she ever regrets bringing the suit, she replied: "About 5 times a day," adding, "It doesn't feel pleasant to be under threat."

Trump called her first lawsuit a "con job" Carroll acknowledged as Ferrara put the words of Trump's statement on a screen for the jury to see.

She was just getting back on her feet when the statement came out and "boom, he knocks me back down again," she testified.

And Carroll said that negative comments about her followed Trump's statement.

"A wave of slime, seedy comments, very denigrating. Almost an endless stream of people repeating what Donald Trump said," she testified. "The main thing was 'way too ugly' ... It's very hard to get up in the morning receiving these messages that you are way too ugly to go on living, practically."

Ferrara showed the jury some tweets calling his client ugly, a troll and a liar.

"These particularly hurt, because I thought I had made it through. There they are again," Carroll said. "I looked at my Twitter this morning. They haven't stopped."

She testified about comments she saw on Twitter Thursday morning calling her "Liar, slut, ugly, old," but, she said, "I couldn't be more proud to be here."

Carroll is expected to be cross examined by Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, on Thursday.