WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG FOR AMBER HEARD AND JOHNNY DEPP?
ACTRESS Amber Heard told the jurors in often emotional terms about the times that Hollywood star Johnny Depp hit her, screamed at her, punched walls and shoved her to the ground.
Heard was called to testify on the 14th day of the defamation trial now under way, reports Variety.
Depp has sued her for $50 million (R795m), alleging that she destroyed his career by mentioning her domestic abuse allegations in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post.
Heard spoke for three hours, describing the early years of their relationship. She told the jury Depp could be extremely loving, but also extremely jealous and abusive, especially when drinking or using drugs.
“I thought he was the love of my life, and he was,” she said. “He was also this other thing – and that other thing was awful.”
Early in her testimony, Heard made it clear she did not want to be there, saying the trial has been among her worst experiences.
“This is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything,” she said. “This is the most painful and difficult thing I have gone through.”
She cried on the stand as she tried to explain why she stayed with Depp despite escalating acts of violence.
Depp did not make eye contact with her, and looked down or to the side during her testimony.
On a May 2013 trip to Hicksville, an upscale trailer park near Joshua Tree in California, she said Depp became paranoid when he saw a woman sitting too close to Heard.
She said Depp grabbed the woman’s wrist, twisting it, and said, “Hey man, you think you’re touching my f ****** girl?” He then asked the woman, “Do you know how many pounds of pressure it takes to break a human wrist?”
Later, in their trailer, Heard said that Depp flew into a rage and started smashing things, and accused her of hiding his cocaine.
“He’s like grabbing my breasts, touching my thighs,” she said, as she started to become emotional.
Heard is expected to tell jurors about several other instances of sexual violence as her testimony continues, including one incident in which she alleges that Depp penetrated her with a bottle.
Heard also testified over the course of four days in the UK in 2020, after Depp sued the The Sun for calling him a “wife beater”.
The Sun prevailed in that trial, as the judge ruled that Heard's allegations were “substantially true”.
Depp is looking for a second chance to redeem his reputation.
In his own testimony two weeks ago, Depp maintained that Heard had repeatedly struck him, and that while he had yelled at her during their relationship, he never struck back.
Depp’s attorneys have also accused Heard of concocting an “elaborate hoax” in order to benefit her career at the expense of his.
Depp’s suit alleges that Heard’s opinion piece, in which she described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”, cost him his role in the sixth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise a “which would have netted him $22.5 million”.
Depp also testified that his finger was severed during an argument with Heard.
He claimed his then-wife became “irate” and “was possessed”, prompting him to lock himself into various rooms to escape her.
But when he emerged to get a drink of vodka, he claimed Heard threw bottles at him, and the second hit his digit, taking off the tip, though he didn’t feel any pain at first.
He said: “I felt heat and I felt as if something were dripping down my hand and then I looked down and realised that the tip of my finger had been severed. I was looking directly at my bones sticking out. Nothing made sense and I knew in my mind and in my heart, this is not life. This is not life. No-one should have to go through this.”
Heard told the jury she met Depp when she was cast in The Rum Diary, and they began their relationship on the press tour for the film in late 2011.
She said they bonded over obscure poetry and literature and at first it was a “whirlwind romance”.
“When I was around Johnny I felt like the most beautiful person in the whole world,” she said.
“He made me feel seen. He made me feel like a million dollars.”
Heard testified that Depp would often make unfounded accusations of infidelity, and she would defend herself, saying they were untrue. That would escalate to violence.
“He would push me, shove me down. I’d get back up,” she said. “He’d shove me back down. Eventually he would just hit me.”
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