Depp denies slapping Heard for laughing at tattoo
Johnny Depp has denied slapping his ex-wife Amber Heard after she laughed at his “Wino Forever” tattoo. The Hollywood actor took to the witness stand to face further questioning on the second day of his highprofile libel action against The Sun newspaper.
The 57-year-old rejected suggestions he slapped actress and model Heard, 34, three times after she made a joke about the design on his arm during a period when he had “fallen off the wagon” – saying “that is not true, you are mistaken”.
Depp is suing The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan
Wootton, over a 2018 article which labelled him a “wife beater” and referred to “overwhelming evidence” that he attacked Heard during their relationship – which the actor strenuously denies.
NGN’s lawyer Sasha Wass QC asked Depp about the alleged incident in March 2013, which Depp agreed was at a time when he had “fallen off the wagon” following about 160 days of sobriety.
It involved a tattoo the actor got on his arm during his relationship with actress Winona Ryder, which read “Winona Forever” and which he had changed to “Wino Forever” after they split. Ms Wass put it to Depp that he slapped Heard three times after she laughed at the tattoo during a period when he was drinking heavily.
She said: “Do you accept that Ms Heard was making a joke out of your tattoo ‘Wino Forever’? I suggest that that provoked disappointment, firstly, in you, and then anger in you, but you don’t remember.”
Depp replied: “I don’t recall any argument about any of my tattoos.”
Ms Wass said: “You then, Mr Depp, slapped Ms Heard across the face.”
The actor responded: “That is not correct, it’s untrue. It didn’t happen.”
The barrister continued: “You slapped her more than once, because after you slapped her the first time, she didn’t react, she just eyeballed you, she just stared at you, and that made you more angry and you slapped her again.”
Depp answered: “That is patently untrue.”
Ms Wass then put it to Depp that he “broke down” after coming to his senses and realising what he had done, to which he said: “I didn’t hit Ms Heard.”
Heard claims Depp first hit her in early 2013 – one of 14 separate allegations of domestic violence, all denied by Depp, relied on by NGN in its defence.
Ms Wass had opened the second day of Depp’s cross-examination by asking the actor about his drug use, saying: “Were you taking cocaine in March 2013?”
Depp replied that it was “difficult to recollect if I was taking cocaine in March 2013 ... It’s possible.”
The barrister later told the court Heard had told Depp “she knew all about addiction because her father and, indeed, also her mother had also been drug users”.
Depp said that was true and that he became “very close” with Heard’s father and mother. But the actor denied that Heard had said “she could help him” with his drug use.
NGN is defending its article as true and alleges Depp was “controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs” between early 2013 and May 2016, when the couple split.
In a written outline of the actor’s case, his barrister, David Sherborne, said the article made “defamatory allegations of the utmost seriousness” against Depp, accusing him of committing serious assaults on Heard and “inflicting such serious injuries that she feared for her life”.
Mr Sherborne said: “The articles amount to a full-scale attack on the claimant as a ‘wife beater’, guilty of the most horrendous physical abuse. The claimant’s position is clear – Ms Heard’s allegations are complete lies. The claimant was not violent towards Ms Heard; it was she who was violent to him.”
He added: “The marriage was at times physical, at her instigation, and on occasions he found it necessary to defend himself from her violence. He is not a wife beater and never has been.”
The trial is expected to last three weeks.