VIDEO: Larry King Plays Radar's Explosive Mel Tapes For Oksana

In her first in-depth TV interview since RadarOnline.com first revealed the bombshell Mel Gibson audio tapes, Oksana Grigorieva sat down Wednesday with Larry King, who played several of the explosive tapes to her to get her reaction.

Watch the clip here on RadarOnline.com

In the interview - which was taped this past weekend - the Russian singer told King she only began taping her conversations with the Braveheart star  following a massive argument with Gibson last January 6 at the actor's Malibu home, during which a gun-toting Gibson "actually assaulted me while I was holding the baby in my arms.

"It was at his house... I ran into my son's bedroom and told him to hide because Mel is crazy, you know, he's getting really violent" she said of the incident. "So, my son was getting ready for bed and he jumped around the bed, hid behind the bed. And I was standing in the middle of the room with the baby like you know, a mother protecting her cubs. And I was standing at the middle of the room holding the baby as Mel proceeded into the room and... struck me twice.

“He hit me and choked me in front of my son and then you know, brandished a gun at me and I left him on the sixth of January,” she said, adding the day after the incident, Gibson was remorseful and apologetic about his actions in hopes of a reconciliation.

"I was covering up for him and... I didn't report it," Grigorieva said. "I was covering up for him and I believed him. And if somebody's asking you for a chance, you give them the chance."

The calls in which a panting, violent Gibson berated her endlessly were recorded after their split on February 18, according to Grigorieva, who said Gibson "called and called and called me and threatened my life.”

Grigorieva, who told King she recorded the calls on an iPhone application called voice memos, said the calls began at 8 pm that evening, but she didn't start taping until 11 pm.

"I knew this is not the man who I fell in love with," she said. "This is his illness speaking because this profanity, this anger, this rage, I mean, unforgivable... I wanted my mother to be able to prove that if I'm dead, that this is who did it."

Grigorieva's attorney Martin Garbus stood behind the legality of recording the calls, saying "if you think that your life is going to be threatened or the person is doing something on phone which has illegal connotations,” they're a way to prove the issue to the authorities.

Grigorieva's been battling Gibson in a legal dogfight, trading accusations of extortion and domestic abuse with the Lethal Weapon star in the ongoing custody case revolving around their baby daughter, Lucia.