I ‘HEARD’ & SAW IT
Sis testifies of ‘violent’ Johnny-Amber penthouse blowout
Amber Heard’s sister testified Wednesday about getting caught between the actress and Johnny Depp during a blowout fight where he hit both of them and called them “whores.”
Whitney Henriquez, 34, was the first witness to say that she personally witnessed Depp physically assaulting Heard.
She detailed one violent confrontation while staying at Depp and Heard’s Los Angeles pad in March 2015 — just one month after the couple’s wedding — that began when she awoke to her older sister in her room saying, “Can you believe he’s cheating on me?”
Henriquez told jurors in the couple’s defamation trial, now in its fifth week, that she tried to comfort Heard, 36. But the argument escalated with the actress and Depp, 58, “screaming horrible things at each other.
“He called her a ‘used-up trash bag,’ she called him ‘old and fat,’ ” the sibling recalled.
At one point, Henriquez said she was caught between the two as Depp stormed up a staircase to confront Heard — and that he struck her in the back while spewing profanities.
“‘Don’t hit my f--king sister,’ ” Heard allegedly interjected — before
she “landed one” on Depp to protect her baby sister, Henriquez said.
A bodyguard ended up stepping in, but by then, “Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly in the face with the other.”
The sisters eventually sought refuge in a locked bedroom.
“We could hear Johnny screaming, ‘I f--king hate you, you f--king whores,’ ” Henriquez recalled. “And we could hear smashing.”
The jolting testimony came as Heard’s lawyers called a series of witnesses who were once part of the actress’s life — including her makeup artist, acting coach and former friends — to tell the jury they saw her bruised and beaten during her marriage to Depp, and counter his narrative that she faked her injuries.
Depp is suing her for defamation over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she claimed she’s a victim of domestic abuse. The piece didn’t name the actor.
Post-fight wounds claim
While the 2015 incident was the only time she says she saw Depp hit her sister, Henriquez said she often saw Heard with bruises after other fights.
Heard’s former best friend Raquel “Rocky” Pennington testified that she saw the actress with bruises and a series of “very, very long, deep” cuts on her forearms.
“I was worried for her physical safety. I was worried that when he turned, he might accidentally do something that was worse than he ever intended,” Pennington said in the January 2022 deposition.
Notably, the arm cuts and similar injuries on Heard’s feet were visible when the actress returned to LA from Australia in March 2015, Pennington said.
Heard has testified that Depp sexually assaulted her with a bottle on that trip.
Pennington also recalled visiting the couple’s LA penthouse on Dec. 15, 2015, after Heard asked for her pal to “check her out” following a fight in
which Depp allegedly head-butted her and potentially broke her nose.
The witness testified to seeing Heard with a cut bottom lip, a swollen nose and a red face — though she conceded that the redness could have been from crying. Pennington also said Heard had a bloody patch on her head where a clump of hair had been ripped out.
Those injuries had to be covered up before Heard appeared on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” on Dec. 16, the actress’s former makeup artist Melanie Inglessis testified via pre-recorded deposition.
“I just did makeup, just a little heavier . . . we covered the discoloration, the bruises, with a little slightly heavier concealer,” Inglessis said.
“She had discoloration around her eyes, on her nose,” Inglessis added. “And she had a slit lip.”
The makeup artist said the actress was “sad,” “angry” and going from “wanting to divorce to not wanting to divorce” that day, but turned on her charm for the talk show.
Henriquez, who stayed with Heard all day in court before the two left together, said claims that her sister is lying about being abused by Depp have made the actress “physically unwell.”
“Amber has worked so hard to overcome everything that she went through in the duration of their relationship,” Henriquez told the jury, saying “she really, really tried her best to move past it.
“Her reputation is all she has. She doesn’t have piles of money and private islands.”