It was divorce him or die, sobs Heard
WASHINGTON: Amber Heard testified that she filed for divorce from “monster” Johnny Depp in May 2016 because she feared for her life.
The Aquaman star’s claim about her ex-husband came as she also conceded she had not fully donated the $US7m settlement from her divorce to charity as promised.
“I had to leave him,” the 36-year-old Heard told the jury at the defamation trail filed against her by her former husband. “I knew that I wouldn’t survive if I didn’t.
“I was so scared that it was going to end really badly for me,” she said. “At the time it felt like the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Heard said of filing for divorce.
“I had worked so hard to try to make this relationship work. It was hard because I loved Johnny so much,” she said. “I loved him so much.”
Heard said the Pirates of the Caribbean star would become a “monster” when he was drinking and her efforts to curtail his drug and alcohol use had failed.
“The monster had been this thing that was now the normal and not the exception,” she said. “The violence was now normal.”
Heard said the same week she filed for divorce she sought a temporary restraining order following an argument during which Depp threw a mobile phone at her, hitting her in the face.
The 58-year-old Depp, during his four days on the witness stand, denied ever striking Heard and claimed she was the one who was frequently violent. Depp filed the suit against Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. Heard did not name Depp but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $US50m in damages. The Texas-born Heard countersued, asking for $US100m, claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands. Heard was ques
tioned about her public pledge to donate her $US7m divorce settlement to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
In heated exchanges with Camille Vasquez, one of Depp’s lawyers, the actress admitted the money had not yet been paid, despite having previously made statements under oath suggesting that it had. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to fulfil those obligations,” Heard said, “because I’ve been sued.”
Ms Vasquez said Heard had the money for months before Depp sued her yet had failed to hand the cash over as promised. The actress repeatedly said that she still intended to fulfil the obligation. The trial was previously told that
only $US1.3m of the promised $US3.5m had been donated to the ACLU.
Heard’s lawyers are expected to wrap up their questioning before turning her over to Depp’s legal team for cross-examination.
Judge Penney Azcarate has scheduled closing arguments in the case for May 27, when it will go to the jury.
Depp’s lawyers have put experts on the stand who testified that he has lost millions because of the abuse accusations, including a $US22.5m payday for a sixth Pirates film.
Depp filed the defamation suit in the US after losing a separate libel case in London in November 2020 that he brought against The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater”.