Talk about a mad trip for Heard and Depp
The couple’s explosive stay down under, said to be fuelled by drugs, alcohol and hatred, spelt the end for their marriage and has resulted in a jaw- dropping court battle, writes Greg Stolz
It was the house of horrors on the trip from hell. Shocking new details of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s stay at motorcycle legend Mick Doohan’s Gold Coast mansion in 2015 have been laid bare in an explosive defamation trial in the US, where Depp is suing Heard for $A70m over a Washington Post op-ed she wrote alleging she’d suffered domestic violence. Heard is countersuing for $134m.
Violent physical and verbal clashes. Allegations of a drug and booze bender and sexual abuse with a bottle. Graffiti scrawled in blood and paint inside the trashed mansion. Even a missing fingertip. And that was even before the infamous Pistol and Boo affair, where the dogs were smuggle into Australia and the couple forced to apologise for breaching quarantine laws.
PIRATES IN TOWN
February 2015. Excitement was building as the then-newly married Depp and Heard prepared to jet in to film the latest instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Depp and Heard were booked in at Doohan’s sprawling 18ha riverfront estate, known as Diamond Head, near the studios where the movie was to be made.
But within weeks of touching down in Queensland, Depp was on a private plane back to the US for surgery on a mystery hand injury, wrapped in gaffer tape. Reports at the time variously suggested he’d hurt his hand during a “weekend bender” or gokarting with Doohan.
The former was much closer to the truth.
DEEP TROUBLES
Allegations of deep trouble in paradise between Depp and Heard first surfaced at a London trial in 2020, when Depp sued The Sun for libel over a story suggesting he was a wife beater.
A High Court judge later found the story to be “substantially true”. He found that Heard had been the victim of “sustained and multiple assaults” while in Australia and dismissed Depp’s claim.
During the trial, The Sun alleged in its defence that while in Australia in March 2015, Depp had subjected Heard to a “three-day ordeal of physical assault which left her with injuries including a broken lip, swollen nose and cuts all over her body”. The court heard evidence that the couple argued on the first day about Depp’s drug use after he took out a bag of ecstasy pills, claiming MDMA was not on his list of “not allowed” drugs.
Depp then allegedly pushed Heard, slapped her, shoved her to the ground and slapped her again before she retreated to a locked bedroom.
“(Depp) stayed up all night taking around eight MDMA (ecstasy) pills and drinking alcohol,” the paper alleged. “The following morning, (Depp) became physically abusive towards Ms Heard, swallowed more pills and chased them down with liquor.”
It was alleged that after Heard asked him what else he’d been taking, he grabbed her by the neck and shoved her against the fridge.
“He said he could crush her neck and told her how easy it would be to do so,” the court was told. “(Depp) hit Ms
Heard multiple times, shoved and pushed her to the ground, choked her, and spat in her face.”
Depp later allegedly shoved Heard into a ping pong table, threw bottles through a glass door, tore off her nightgown, slammed her into a countertop and strangled her. She had woken to find Depp was missing a fingertip, and messages scrawled in blood and paint throughout the mansion and on her clothing.
RAMPAGE
A tearful Heard gave more sensational details during the defamation trial in Virginia last week, claiming he had also repeatedly violated her with a bottle.
“I didn’t know if the bottle he had inside me was broken,” she said, breathing heavily as she held back tears.
“I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything.”
Heard testified that Depp had also held a broken bottle to her face and threatened to cut it. “My nightgown came completely off, it was ripped off of me,” Heard said through tears, adding that the actor was punching the wall next to her head. “I was naked, slipping around on this tile,” she continued. “He’s screaming at me and saying I ruined his life.”
“I f..king hate you. You ruined my f..king life,’” Depp screamed while he smashed a phone “to smithereens”, Heard testified.
“I’m looking in his eyes, I don’t see him anymore,” she said, starting to sob. “It wasn’t him. It was black. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I was trying to get through to Johnny and I couldn’t see him at all.”
Testifying at the London trial, Depp denied being “off his face on drugs and alcohol” and claimed Heard flew into a “prolonged and extreme rage” over a prenuptial agreement he wanted her to sign, forcing him to retreat and seek refuge in locked bathrooms. He denied assaulting his wife, taking MDMA or damaging the house – except perhaps for ripping a phone off
the wall – but admitted he may have accused Heard of having
affairs, including
(Depp) became physically abusive towards Ms Heard, swallowed more pills and chased them down with liquor THE SUN’S DEFENCE DURING THE DEPP LIBEL TRIAL
with fellow actor Billy Bob Thornton. Depp claimed his hand injury happened when she threw a bottle at him, severing the top of his finger and fracturing multiple bones, and she later stubbed out a cigarette on his face.
He admitted using blood from his injured finger and paint to write messages in the house, including one reading “Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Easy Amber”, and another that said “Good luck, be careful at the top”.
THE CHAOS
The London trial heard evidence of the chaos that followed the mansion trashing and Depp’s injury, which caused production on Pirates to be shut down for three weeks and hundreds of film workers stood down.
In a recorded conversation, tendered as evidence at the trial, between Depp’s head of security, Jerry Judge, and Doohan house manager Ben King, Judge said: “And honestly, he (Depp) wrecked this place. I mean wrecked. Windows broken. The TV – she (Heard) did it. There was a cup thrown, it missed. There’s been bottles thrown, and she admits to me she threw the first. There’s blood everywhere … these two are covered in blood.
Down in the bar, he drank everything in the past week and within two hours he’d taken 10 … 10 ecstasy tablets. If someone keeps supplying him, he’s going to O.D. on this.
“I am not going to say that h t she did or he did it but yesterday, she is stone cold sober. She doesn’t smell of booze. We need to get this house before anybody sees it, we need to get it cleaned up.”
King: “Speaking of cleaning up, how much do you owe? I would safely say we’ve lost the deposit on this one.”
Judge: “Lost the deposit … between me and you, I’m looking at $50k to $75k. That’s what it’s going to cost for this. Carpets and all.”
King: “Oh easily. Probably more. This floor will need redoing because that’s paint, isn’t it? It will probably need a complete sanding.”
Judge: “What I’m most concerned with now is that if the owner sees the house he’ll kick us out and go to the newspapers. They tell me the TV is about 10 grand, 15 grand on its own.”
King testified that the house had suffered “a significant amount of damage”, especially in the downstairs bar, and that he spent several hours cleaning up the mess, including broken glass, graffiti, liquid spillages and broken china where a cup had struck a TV.
He said he came back about a week later for the larger clean-up, including floor sanding, curtain cleaning, painting and plastering and repairing chipped stone on the bar and staircase “where a flower vase had been launched from the floor above”.
THE CALL
Another of Depp’s security guards, Malcolm Connolly, testified at the London trial that he he got a phone call from Jerry Judge saying they were “needed urgently to get Mr Depp”. Connolly said when they arrived at the mansion, a “distraught but coherent” Depp told him: “Look at my finger. She’s cut my f..king finger off. She’s smashed my hand with a vodka bottle.”
By this time, Depp’s personal doctor, David Kipper, had arrived in Australia and the actor sent him a plaintive text message which was tendered at the London trial.
“I just cannot live like this … she is as full of shit as a Christmas goose! I’m done. No more … The constant insults, the demeaning, belittling, most heartbreaking spew that is only released from a malicious, evil and vindictive c..t! But, you know what … ?
Far more hurtful than her venomous and degrading endless ‘educational’ ranting … is her hideous and purposely hurtful tirades and her goddamn shocking treatment of the man she was meant to love above all. Here’s the real deal, mate … Her obsession with herself … is far more important … she is so f..king ambitious! She’s so desperate for success and fame … That’s probably why I was acquired mate … Although she has hammered me with what a sad old man, has-been I am. I’m so very embarrassed for jumping into anything with her …”
According to evidence at the London trial, Depp also texted a minder the same day to apparently source more drugs. ‘Need more whitey stuff ASAP, brotherman … And the e business! Please … I’m in bad bad shape … Say nothing to nobody!” the message read, in what the judge found was “obviously” a reference to cocaine and ecstasy.
Dr Kipper dressed Depp’s wound and took him to Gold Coast Hospital, where he was treated under the pseudonym of Robert Wells.
OFF COURSE
A few days later, a press release claimed: “Johnny Depp injured his hand go-karting with Mick Doohan at Australian motorbike champion’s luxury estate – forcing the star to fly home.”
Depp flew back to LA for surgery and did not return to Queensland for several weeks, with reports at the time that he was in rehab under 24-hour care. He and Heard finally flew back into Brisbane in late April 2015.
After they returned to the US, Depp and Heard split acrimoniously as she filed for divorce.