Amber would fight as hard as Depp, marriage counsellor tells £76m trial
JOHNNY Depp and Amber Heard engaged in ‘mutual abuse’, a marriage counsellor who tried to help them told their defamation trial yesterday.
Dr Laurel Anderson said that while Depp was physically abusive, Miss Heard ‘fought as hard as he did’.
She also said Depp was ‘triggered’ into acting out his abusive upbringing by violence from Miss Heard, who would start fights with the Pirates Of The Caribbean star rather than see him walk away, as ‘abandonment was her worst nightmare’.
The testimony emerged on day three of their defamation trial in Fairfax, Virginia. Depp, 58, sued Miss Heard for £38million over a Washington Post piece she wrote in 2018, which he claims ruined his career.
Miss Heard, 35, has countersued for £76million, claiming he tried to get her fired in a ‘smear campaign’.
They had squared off in 2020 at the High Court in London, where a judge ruled that a newspaper claim that Depp was a ‘wife beater’ was ‘substantially true’.
In video testimony played to the jury, Dr Anderson referred to how fights began, claiming: ‘I know she led more than one occasion. It was a point of pride to her, if she felt disrespected, to initiate a fight.’
The jury heard notes of the couple’s first therapy session on October 1, 2015 – eight months after they wed. They said Miss Heard claimed Depp had told her: ‘No one likes you, you’re getting fame from me. I’m falling out of love with you, whore.’
Dr Anderson said that after their final fight in May 2016, the actress stopped at her office to show her the bruises.
Miss Heard’s former personal assistant Kate James, who worked for her between 2012 and 2015, told the court of Miss Heard’s ‘blind rage’ and how the actress used to ‘scream’ at her for minor things.
Miss James said she never saw any bruises or redness on Miss Heard’s face during the time she worked for the actress, and described Depp as ‘a total Southern gentleman’. The case continues.