Unpleasant gift in my bed was a fitting end to our turbulent marriage, Depp tells libel trial
Court hears that former wife blamed incident after birthday party row on one of couple’s two dogs
CELEBRITY marriages can often be messy affairs, and none more so than that of Johnny Depp and his former wife Amber Heard.
But the depths to which their union descended involved one particularly unpleasant episode.
Ms Heard is accused of having defecated in the couple’s marital bed in what he has said was a “fitting end” to their turbulent relationship.
The actress blamed one of their dogs, but the High Court has been told Mr Depp, 57, suspected either Ms Heard or one of her coterie were responsible for the objectionable “gift” found at their Los Angeles home – the morning after he allegedly attacked her at the end of a party to celebrate her 30th birthday.
The claim came during the fourth day of a libel case being brought by Mr Depp against NGN, the publisher of The Sun, at the High Court in London.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star accuses the paper of causing serious harm to his reputation by describing him, in an online story from April 2018, as a “wife beater” who was violently abusive towards Ms Heard, now 34.
Mr Depp had allegedly arrived stressed and several hours late for Ms Heard’s party at their home in April 2016, after being given “rather unfortunate news” about his financial affairs.
Ms Heard accuses him of throwing a magnum of champagne at her, which missed, before grabbing her hair and pushing her on to their bed, while “drunk and high on drugs”.
The actor claims Ms Heard had been “drinking heavily” and attacked him while he was reading in bed, punching him in the face four times.
NGN’S barrister Sasha Wass QC asked if Mr Depp left Ms Heard a note which read “happy f------ birthday”.
He replied: “I don’t know that I did, but it is very, very possible.”
The faeces in the bed was discovered the following morning by one of their cleaners, who took photographs of it which the actor found “hilarious”.
Mr Depp told the court: “It was one of the most absurd, unexpected statements that I have ever witnessed in my life.” He added that the incident was “a fitting end to the relationship”.
Ms Wass suggested that Boo, one of the couple’s two Yorkshire terriers, “had problems with her toilet habits”, to which the actor said the dogs “were very well trained”.
A month later, the court heard, continued rancour over the defecation incident led to another furious row, during which Mr Depp is accused of throwing a phone at Ms Heard before smashing “everything he could” with a magnum bottle, this time of wine.
Mr Depp is said to have wound his arm back like a baseball pitcher and thrown the phone at Ms Heard, hitting her below the eye. Two police officers attended the apartment after the incident but Ms Heard did not want to press charges.
One of the officers, Melissa Saenz, told the court via video link there were no signs of injury on Ms Heard’s face at that stage.
The court was shown photographs of Ms Heard taken that day, said to show the beginnings of a bruise beneath her eye, which were later presented to a Los Angeles court as part of her request for a restraining order against Mr Depp.
Mr Depp denied attacking Ms Heard and said that no other woman had ever accused him of hitting them.
The case continues.
‘It was one of the most absurd, unexpected statements that I have ever witnessed in my life’