Actor Johnny Depp took the stand for the second day on Wednesday to describe his turbulent marriage to actress Amber Heard, whom he has sued for defamation and accused her of “degrading profanity” that often escalated into physical violence.
“It can start with a slap, it can start with a push, it can start with throwing a TV remote at my head, throwing a glass of wine in my face,” Mr. Depp to a jury of Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia.
Ms. Heard has accused Mr. Depp in court papers of assaulting her repeatedly during their relationship, ranging from hitting and kicking her to dragging her hair across the floor and grabbing her by the throat, leaving her in fear that he would kill her.
But in recent years of legal wrangling in the United States and Britain, Mr. Depp has maintained that Mrs. Heard was the one who was violent against him. In testimony on Tuesday, Mr Depp denied that he had ever beaten Ms Heard or any woman.
“She needs conflict, she needs violence,” he said of Ms. Heard. “It comes out of nowhere.”
Ms. Heard denied in court papers that she had ever hit Mr. Depp except in self-defense or in defense of her sister.
Depp has sued Ms Heard for defamation over an op-ed she wrote in 2018 in which she said she was a “public figure representing domestic violence”. The article did not mention Mr Depp’s name, but he testified that the reference to the time frame in the op-ed clearly related to their marriage, which lasted less than two years.
The seven-member jury will also consider Ms Heard’s counterclaim alleging that Mr Depp defamed her when his former attorney made statements that her allegations of domestic violence were fraudulent.
During more than five hours of testimony on Wednesday, the jury heard snippets of recorded arguments between the couple. Those include audio of Mr. Depp confronting Ms. Heard about kicking a door in his head the previous night and Ms. Heard asking, “Why are you so obsessed with the fact that I can’t remember the way you do? you remember?”
During his testimony, Mr. Depp tried to show his side of several incidents that came to light when their problems in their relationship became public, including the moment when Mr. Depp’s middle finger was cut off. The injury occurred in 2015, while the couple was in Australia shooting the fifth movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”.
Depp told the jury that at the time, Ms. Heard was upset about a meeting she had with a lawyer about a potential marriage deal and threw two vodka bottles at him, one of which was missing while another shattered in his hand, causing his finger to bleed “like the Vesuvius.” He testified that he then experienced a “nervous breakdown” and used his bloodied finger to write messages on the walls that “represented lies she told me”.
Ms Heard, who is expected to take the stand later in the trial, has given a very different account of the incident in Australia, writing in court papers that Mr Depp became violent towards her during an argument over his drug use. She has said that at one point he grabbed her by the neck and collarbone and slammed her against a kitchen counter, then hit her with the back of his hand and slammed a phone against a wall until it “fallen to smithereens,” killing her. injured his finger.
On her return to Los Angeles, Ms. Heard wrote in the court papers, “I had a busted lip, a swollen nose and cuts all over my body.”
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:
In 2016, Mrs. Heard issued a temporary restraining order against Mr. Depp after telling a California court that Mr. Depp had thrown a phone at her face at close range, crushing it. (Mr. Depp testified that he “thrown” the phone on the couch and claimed in court documents that Ms Heard’s facial prints were of her own doing.)
Many of the accusations being lobbied back and forth in Virginia have already been leveled in a London court. After Mr Depp sued The Sun newspaper there over a headline calling him a “wife beater” and citing “overwhelming evidence” during their marriage, a British judge ruled against the actor.
In Fairfax County, Judge Penney S. Azcarate appeared to cut off an attempt by one of Ms. Heard’s lawyers to name the British case earlier in the trial. After a sidebar with the judge, the attorney switched to a new line of questioning, indicating that there are restrictions on any reference to that proceeding.
mr. Depp will remain in the stands on Thursday as he is shown by an attorney for Ms. Heard is being questioned.
Mr Depp’s lawsuit alleges that his career has suffered from Ms Heard’s portrayal of him. On Wednesday, Mr. Depp testified that as Ms. Heard’s allegations gained traction around the world, there were no more calls from agents and producers, and he felt that people were starting to view him differently.
“Regardless of the outcome of this trial, I will carry that with me for the rest of my days,” he said.