In UK libel case, Depp denies hitting ex-wife Amber Heard

LONDON — Johnny Depp denied hitting ex-wife Amber Heard in a jealous rage, dangling her tiny dog out a car window and being a Jekyll-and-Hyde monster, as he was cross-examined for a second day Wednesday by a lawyer for British tabloid The Sun. The newspaper is defending a libel claim after calling the Hollywood star a “wife beater.”

Depp is suing The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that said he had physically abused Heard.

The case opened Tuesday at the High Court in London, with Depp sitting in the witness box and denying Heard’s allegations that he assaulted her on multiple occasions.

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star said Heard’s “sick” claims that he assaulted her on multiple occasions were “totally untrue.” He called his ex-wife sociopathic, narcissistic and emotionally dishonest.

Depp, 57, and Heard, 34, met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. They divorced in 2017, and now bitterly accuse one another of abuse.

While Heard isn’t on trial, the case is a showdown between the former spouses, who accuse each other of being controlling, violent and deceitful during their tempestuous marriage.

The Sun’s defence relies on Heard’s allegations of 14 incidents of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, in locations including Los Angeles, Australia, Japan, the Bahamas and a chartered jet. He denies them all and says Heard, an actress and model, attacked him with items including a drink can and a cigarette, and severed his finger by throwing a vodka bottle at him.

He also denied hitting Heard in 2013 after she laughed at a tattoo he had that read “Wino Forever.” He said he’d had it altered from “Winona Forever” after he split up with actress Winona Ryder years earlier.

“I don’t recall any argument about any of my tattoos,” Depp said.

Depp rejected every allegation of violence put to him by Wass, dismissing the claims as “not correct” and “patently untrue.”

He denied the lawyer’s suggestion that his memory had been impaired by alcohol and drug abuse.

Wass has tried to paint Depp as a volatile personality with a longstanding drug habit and an anger-management problem.

Depp acknowledged taking both prescription and illegal substances since childhood, but said Heard’s clam he became a “monster” when he drank and took drugs was “delusional.”

When Wass said Heard often had two or three glasses of wine during an evening, Depp shot back: “Two or three bottles.”

“That is complete nonsense, Mr. Depp,” the lawyer said.

Heard is attending court and is expected to give evidence later in the trial, which is scheduled to last three weeks.