Amber Heard accuses Depp of throwing bottles
LONDON — Amber Heard alleged in a British court on Wednesday that ex-husband Johnny Depp threw “30 or so bottles” at her as if they were “grenades or bombs” during a drunken and frenzied assault in Australia in March 2015 that also saw him accidentally sever part of his finger.
Taking the witness box for a third day at the High Court in London during Depp’s libel case against a British tabloid, the actress refuted his allegation that it was she who lost her temper and that she had injured him.
Heard has described her stay in Australia with Depp as akin to a “three-day hostage situation,” during which Depp was “completely out of his mind and out of control” following a binge on drugs and alcohol. Heard has said that she feared for her life while at the rented property on Australia’s Gold Coast during a visit while Depp was filming the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” film.
The incident is central to The Sun’s labeling of Depp in an April 2018 article as a “wife-beater.” The Sun’s defense relies on 14 allegations made by Heard of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings as varied as the rented house in Australia, his private island in the Bahamas and a private jet.
Depp, 57, denies abusing Heard and claims she was the aggressor during their tempestuous relationship. He was present once again to hear Heard’s testimony. He is suing The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over the article.
Depp’s lawyer, Eleanor Laws, said Heard had worked herself “into a rage” during her stay in Australia and that she had a habit of just “losing it.”
Heard, 34, said she got “angry at times but not into a rage that would cause me to throw anything at him.”
She acknowledged that she broke one bottle during their second evening together in Australia, testifying that it happened as they argued about the scale of Depp’s drinking.
“I regret I did that,” said Heard, who also claimed that Depp often credited her for saving him by trying to get him clean and sober.
After she smashed the bottle, Heard alleges that Depp, fueled by alcohol and drugs, started throwing bottles, full enough that they broke a window behind her.
“He started picking them up one by one and throwing them like grenades or bombs,” she said. “One after the other after the other, in my direction, and I felt glass breaking behind me.”
She said he threw all the bottles that were within reach, bar one “celebratory magnum-sized bottle of wine.”
“I would be shocked if Johnny remembers any of this himself, but I was there,” Heard said.
Heard also denied severing the tip of Depp’s finger during the alleged bottlethrowing or putting out a cigarette on his cheek during the incident. She said it was something Depp used to do to himself.
“I was standing right in front of him,” Heard said. “It was deliberate.”
Heard said Depp “screamed” at her while stubbing the cigarette on his cheek that he couldn’t feel the pain. She testified that Depp was high on cocaine and MDMA at the time, as well as drunk.
Depp’s lawyer, Laws, also accused Heard of lying about an alleged incident of domestic violence in Los Angeles in December 2015, which Heard has described in written testimony as “one of the worst and most violent nights” of the couple’s relationship.