New York Post

depps of hell

Amber shock: ‘Johnny beat me’

- By HELEN KUMARI in Los Angeles and LAURA ITALIANO in New York

Amber Heard accused husband Johnny Depp of beating her, saying he abused alcohol and last weekend threw an iPhone at her, bruising her face.

Johnny Depp is a drunken, paranoid, wine-bottle-flinging wife-beater, Amber Heard alleged on Friday, peppering a Los Angeles judge with harrowing tales of domestic violence and offering her own bruised face as proof. “During the entirety of our relationsh­ip, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me,” the 30-year-old actress says in bombshell court papers she filed in a successful effort to secure a restrainin­g order against Depp, 52. “Johnny has a long-held and widely acknowledg­ed public and private history of drug and alcohol abuse,” Heard says in the papers, which now become part of the divorce proceeding­s she initiated Monday after just 15 months of marriage. “He has a short fuse,” she says in the filing. “He is often paranoid and his temper is exceptiona­lly scary for me as it has proven many times to be physically dangerous and/ or life-threatenin­g to me.” Just last Saturday, in what she called their most recent fracas, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star “wound up his arm like a baseball pitcher” and hurled her iPhone at her right eye in their LA home, she alleges. The “Magic Mike XXL” actress says that she held her face and sobbed in pain on the sofa, but that Depp “charged” her again. “He then forcibly pulled back my hair as I attempted to stand on the sofa,” she alleges. “Johnny continued screaming at me, pulling my hair, striking me and violently grabbing my face.” Heard brought several photos of her bruised face to court Friday as proof of her injuries for the judge, TMZ reported.

Her right cheek still bore a small red bruise as she left court Friday wearing a somber black dress and with restrainin­g order in hand. But for all her announced victimhood, Heard has been playing hardball with Depp behind the scenes this week.

According to court papers, Heard warned Depp’s side that if he didn’t play nice and quickly agree to “an amicable and private resolution” in the divorce, she’d have no choice but to air their dirty laundry.

“Although Amber is afraid of Johnny, she strongly insists that we do everything possible to keep this personal matter out of the media spotlight,” Heard’s lawyer warned Depp’s in a letter dated Tuesday. “Which is why . . . we did not arrange for Johnny to have been personally served at last night’s movie premiere” in Hollywood, for “Alice Through the Looking Glass.’’

A Los Angeles judge decreed that Depp must now stay 100 yards away from her.

Depp is in Europe anyway promoting “Looking Glass,” in which he plays the Mad Hatter.

The judge also ruled that Heard gets to live in the couple’s LA home, a three-unit penthouse. But Heard lost her bid to keep the couple’s Range Rover and to bar Depp from her Yorkshire terrier, Pistol.

Pistol and Depp’s dog, Boo, had gotten the couple in hot water last May when officials discovered that the stars had sneaked both pooches into Australia in violation of local quarantine rules.

The judge also denied Heard’s request that Depp be ordered to attend angermanag­ement classes and pay her $50,000 a month for legal fees. Heard’s papers claim her assets total “only” $25,000.

Depp’s lawyer, Laura Wasser, opposed the legal-fee request on Friday, stating in papers that “both Amber and Johnny are successful actors.”

Wasser also noted in the papers that Heard filed for divorce shortly after Depp’s mother, Betty Sue Palmer, died at age 81 after a long illness. “Amber filed her petition three days after the death of Johnny’s mother,” Wasser argued. “There has been significan­t commentary in the media as to this timing, given that Johnny was very close to his mother.

“Amber’s anger certainly cannot drive this dissolutio­n proceeding.”

Last Saturday’s alleged fight was nothing new, Heard says in her own papers.

A previous argument erupted after Depp arrived “inebriated and high” and very late for her birthday party at their home, Heard’s papers allege.

After the last guest left, they argued, and Depp threw a magnum-sized champagne bottle at a wall and a wine glass directly at her, the papers claim.

Depp also allegedly grabbed Heard by the hair and shoved her to the floor.

The fractious couple did not see each other for a month — until Saturday night, in time for that final blow-up.

Depp allegedly offered her money to stay quiet about the incident, TMZ re- ported — but instead, she filed her divorce papers two days later.

Heard claims she has an ear-witness to the most recent violence, saying she was talking with close pal iO Tillett Wright as Depp pulled the phone from her hand.

As Page Six reported exclusivel­y in April 2015, the openly bisexual Heard’s close friendship with the Brooklyn-based Wright — a photograph­er and bisexualri­ghts activist — caused tension between Heard and Depp.

Heard put Wright on speakerpho­ne so all three parties could hear what was happening and “to prove his paranoid and irrational accusation­s about some delusional idea he was having,” Heard says in legal papers. “Johnny ripped the cell from my hand and began screaming profanitie­s and insults at iO.”

“I heard iO yell at me to get out of the house. Johnny then grabbed the cellphone, wound up his arm like a baseball pitcher and threw the cellphone at me, striking my cheek and eye with great force.” Wright called 911, but arriving LAPD officers found Depp had left and Heard declining to give a statement.

An LAPD spokesman told The Post that there were no visible injuries or indication of violence, so the probe was closed.

Sources close to Depp are downplayin­g Heard’s claims of violence, insisting that on the very next day, Sunday, Heard was tagged in an Instagram photo of herself and two friends. No injuries are visible in that photo, they note — although Heard’s long bangs obscure her right eye.

On Thursday, Depp told People magazine, “Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinforma­tion and lies about his personal life. Hopefully, the dissolutio­n of this short marriage will be resolved quickly.”

Johnny continued screaming at me, pulling my hair, striking me and violently grabbing my face. — Amber Heard

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 ??  ?? BUST UP: Johnny Depp attends last February s Grammy Awards with his wife, Amber Heard, who was seen leaving a Los Angeles courthouse on Friday (far left) — with her cheek bruised — after winning a restrainin­g order against him.
BUST UP: Johnny Depp attends last February s Grammy Awards with his wife, Amber Heard, who was seen leaving a Los Angeles courthouse on Friday (far left) — with her cheek bruised — after winning a restrainin­g order against him.

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