After nearly two years of publicly denying that they were lovers, Domnica Cemortan, 26, made the admission under intense pressure during cross-examination in the trial of Schettino, in Grosseto, Tuscany.
Schettino faces charges of manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a maritime disaster.
Cemortan refused at least three times to say whether she and the 53-year-old married commander had had a relationship, prompting Judge Giovanni Puliatti to threaten to prosecute her unless she told the truth.
Prosecutors say the presence of the dancer on the bridge that night distracted Schettino and contributed to the accident, which cost the lives of 32 people.
When asked how she had been able to board the ship without a ticket for the week-long cruise around the Mediterranean she answered: "When you are somebody's lover they don't ask to see your ticket."
Cemortan, a single mother of one, told the court that, on the evening of January 13 2012, she had been invited to dinner by Schettino in one of the ship's restaurants.
After dinner he asked her to join him on the bridge of the liner as he took it past the island of Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany.
Prosecutors say that he took the ship so close to the island that it rammed into a reef only a few metres from the shore. The ship should have stayed at least five nautical miles away from the island, the court heard.
As the reef tore a gaping hole in the ship's hull and alarms sounded there was "panic" on the bridge and among the 4200 passengers and crew, Cemortan said.
Cemortan said she rushed to Schettino's cabin, where she had stowed her luggage . She changed out of her evening dress into warmer , more practical garb.
She grabbed a blue civilian jacket which the captain changed into after taking off his uniform jacket.
With the ship taking on water and starting to list, Schettino turned to her and said: "You need to go - save yourself." He remained on the bridge.
As she was helping passengers into lifeboats, Cemortan said she saw a man in a dark jacket in a nearby lifeboat.
"I can't remember if it was him [Schettino] or not," she said.
Schettino's lawyers claimed he "accidentally tripped" into the life raft which took him to shore. Prosecutors accuse him of abandoning the ship well before the evacuation was completed.
Cemortan told the court that she had met Schettino while working on the Concordia the month before the accident.
"I became his favourite," she said. After the accident, however, "we didn't see each other any more".
She said the intense public scrutiny of the nature of her relationship with the captain had psychologically damaged her.
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