Johnny Depp, Amber Heard documents shed new light on dual abuse accounts
LOS ANGELES: The volatile relationship between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and previously unreleased testimony from their 2016 divorce, is expected to be central to Depp’s defamation lawsuit against UK tabloid The Sun.
“Johnny and I refer to his other personality, the part of him that is present when he beats me up — we call that the monster and have called (that) the monster for many years,” Heard recounted during a deposition taken amid the divorce two years ago. She added, “I was petrified of the monster.”
That 471-page deposition transcript is part of a trove of previously unreleased documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter along with statements from Heard’s close friend Raquel Pennington and the Los Angeles Police Department officers.
The police had responded after an altercation between the then-married couple at an L.A. penthouse on May 21, 2016. Heard’s friend Tillett Wright, with whom she had been on the phone before it was allegedly thrown at Heard, had called 911.
The testimony sheds new light on the relationship and will be a point of contention in a court battle in the United Kingdom.
The tabloid The Sun is defending itself in a defamation lawsuit filed by Depp over an April 2018 story headlined “How can J.K. Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wifebeater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”
The article referenced “Aquaman” star Heard’s application for a restraining order against the actor, which centres on that May 2016 night, and said the actress “recounted a detailed history of domestic abuse incidents, some of which had led to her fearing for her life.”
Recently, Heard penned an opinion piece for the Washington Post, titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”