The Central Criminal Court has heard that Eamonn Lillis, who is on trial for the murder of his wife, described her as a "fighter, a tough nut" to gardaí.
Eamonn Lillis, 52, denies the murder of Celine Cawley at their home in Windgate Road in Howth, Co Dublin in December 2008.
In statements to gardaí, in which he claimed his wife had been attacked by an intruder, Mr Lillis said she would have struggled with an attacker.
He said: 'Celine was a fighter, a tough nut, she would have confronted someone. She wasn't a wall flower.'
At the opening of his trial yesterday, he admitted through his lawyers that there was no intruder and they were alone in the house when his wife was injured.
The trial is expected to hear evidence that he told his daughter and his lover that his wife hit her head on a brick when she fell during a row.
The 46-year-old film producer was found unconscious on the patio of her home in Howth after her husband called the emergency services.
Paramedics told the court today that Ms Cawley was 'colder than might have been expected' given the time of the call out and the time they reached her.
Extensive efforts to resuscitate her at her home, in an ambulance and at Beaumont Hospital all failed and she was pronounced dead.
Ms Cawley had suffered a wound to the back of her head.
