Nicollette Sheridan was fired from the cast of Desperate Housewives because of her "unprofessional behaviour."

The claim came from the show's creator Marc Cherry who took to the stand yesterday during the trial of the lawsuit brought by the actress.

She is alleging that her character Edie Britt was killed off from the show in the fifth season after she complained that she had been hit by Marc on the set of the ABC show.

But Marc maintained during his testimony that the decision to let her go was purely a creative one and a way to cut costs as the ratings for the show declined.

Marc said that Nicollette's behaviour was not the "primary reason for my decision, but it was something I was aware of."

He went on to list at least five things that he deemed unprofessional including her punctuality, forgetting her lines, seeing her being rude to a prop worker, her questioning him about the script and her raising issues about her fellow co-stars.

Marc said he was given permission by ABC executives to kill off the character and had mentioned to them that the "money was an extra benefit in this decision."

While Nicollette is expected to call some of the studio's top executives to help her case, Marc's legal team will reportedly call co-stars Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria and Marcia Cross to the stand.

But the judge has already told Nicollette that she would only be eligible to get up to $4 million in damages, which is about a year's salary for her, rather than payment for the remaining three seasons she was claiming for. The show will end after the eighth season this year.