Amber Heard testified Monday in the libel suit brought by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, that she filed for divorce and a restraining order against him in 2016 after two outbursts that left her fearing for her safety.
“I knew I had to leave him,” Ms Heard testified. “I knew I wouldn’t survive if I didn’t.”
But after spending several hours describing the breakdown of their marriage, Ms. Heard faced an aggressive cross-examination from a lawyer for Mr. Depp, Camille Vasquez, who tried to discredit her story that the actor had beaten her repeatedly during their relationship.
Citing incidents where Ms Heard testified that she had been beaten, Mr Depp’s lawyers showed photos taken at the time that showed no obvious bruising or swelling. Ms. Heard testified that she covered the injuries with makeup so that the abuse would be hidden after many of the incidents.
“You should see what it looked like under the makeup,” Ms Heard said of a photo she described as the night after Mr. Depp hit her so hard she thought her nose had been broken.
As the trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia entered its final two weeks, Ms. Heard spent the opening hours of the day finalizing her testimony before confronting Mr. Depp’s legal team, who wondered if her reports of spousal abuse were accurate and whether she had actually donated the money she had received from her divorce to charity, as she had promised.
Her testimony included her account of the first time the issue of Mr. Depp’s spousal abuse came out in public, in May 2016, after paparazzi photographed Ms. Heard at a California court where she was given a temporary restraining order against him. She had what appeared to be a bruise under one eye, and she then told the court, in a file, that about a week earlier, during an argument, Mr. Depp had thrown a cell phone at her and punched her in the face.
“The violence was now normal and no exception,” Ms Heard told the jury on Monday.
Mr Depp, 58, sued Ms Heard, 36, for defamation after The Washington Post published an op-ed by Ms Heard in 2018 in which she represents herself as a “public figure who represents domestic violence.” The article did not mention Mr Depp by name, but he has claimed it clearly alluded to their relationship. The jury is also considering a counter-charge filed by Ms. Heard, who accuses Mr. Depp of defaming her when his former attorney made statements stating that her charges were fraudulent.
In addition to repeated physical assault, Ms Heard has described multiple instances of sexual assault by Mr Depp. He has accused her of being the aggressor in the relationship and has denied ever hitting or sexually assaulting her.
Ms Heard testified Monday about a confrontation that occurred after Mr Depp missed her birthday dinner in April 2016 because he had a business meeting. Later that night, when they were alone, he started a physical fight, she said, pushing her, grabbing her hair and throwing a bottle of champagne at her, causing her to miss her.
Ms. Heard said she hadn’t seen her then-husband for about a month after that. But in May 2016, when Mr. Depp visited the Los Angeles penthouse where Ms. Heard was staying, the couple got into an argument over Mr. Depp’s accusation that she or a friend had pooped in the couple’s bed as a “joke.” Ms. Heard called the accusation “delusional,” attributing the feces to one of the couple’s dogs.
During the confrontation, Ms. Heard said, she was on the phone with a friend, who heard the commotion and screams and warned Ms. Heard that she was not safe. That prompted Mr. Depp, she said, to take the phone from her.
“He pulls his arm back with the phone and throws it at my face,” she said. “I put my head in my hands and immediately start crying.”
According to court documents, the friend on the phone called 911, but when the police arrived, Ms Heard refused to cooperate.
“I wanted to protect Johnny,” she testified Monday. “I didn’t want him to be arrested.”
But two days later, she said, she filed for divorce, and a few days after that, she filed for the restraining order because she was experiencing extreme anxiety and wanted assurances that Mr. Depp would not return to where she lived. (She agreed to a request to revoke a permanent restraining order as part of their divorce settlement.)
Mr Depp’s account of those two incidents was markedly different during his testimony earlier in the trial. He said he had an important meeting about his finances and that he was late to Ms. Heard’s birthday party, prompting her to lash out at him later that night. He testified that she punched him twice in the face before he left the building and stayed elsewhere. His mother died while the couple were divorced, and when he called Ms. Heard to tell her the news, he also told her that he was planning to file for divorce, Mr. Depp testified.
“Someone had to call it,” he acknowledged.
When he returned to the penthouse to pick up some of his belongings, Mr. Depp testified, the couple got into an argument over the feces an employee found in the bed the previous month. Mr. Depp said he didn’t throw the phone at her, but “thrown” it on the couch. He accused Ms. Hed of pretending to have been injured in the confrontation to convince her friends that she was in danger.
Johnny Depp’s libel case against Amber Heard
In the courtroom. A libel lawsuit involving formerly married actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is currently underway at Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia. Here’s what you need to know about the case:
“Stop hitting me, Johnny!” she’s screaming at her best startled, upset voice,” said Mr. Depp.
Also played in court on Monday was an audio recording of a phone conversation between the couple from June 2016, in which Mr Depp challenged Ms Heard whether she believed the allegations she made in the restraining order were true.
“Do you believe all this, Amber?” said Mr. Depp in the conversation. “Do you think I’m an abuser?”
“Yes!” Mrs. Heard answered repeatedly.
More than two years after she was given the temporary restraining order, The Washington Post published Ms. Heard’s op-ed, which presented broader policy arguments for national responses to gender-based violence. Ms. Heard testified that she agreed to the op-ed because she wanted to raise awareness about those issues, not because she wanted to include details of her experience with Mr. Depp or publicize her film at the time.
Ms. Heard pleaded for her counter-charge and also testified on statements by Mr. Depp’s former attorney who tried to discredit her allegations, saying it was “torture” to hear the abuse stories she shared in court. , to relive.
“I just wanted him to leave me alone,” Ms. Heard said of Mr. Depp. “I wanted to move on with my life, and he won’t let me.”