Amber Heard today denied Johnny Depp’s claims she was violent while they were married – saying the star considered any verbal insults to be like being punched.
The actor claims that his ex-wife enjoyed hitting him and was violent towards him throughout their marriage before it collapsed in 2016.
Ms Heard claims this was a fabrication. She said in her second witness statement published today: ‘Johnny has said I was continually verbally and physically assaulting him during our relationship – he paints a picture that I was somehow the instigator and the abusive partner.
‘That’s not true. It is true that I had to use my body and limbs to protect myself from Johnny’s violence and abuse. He also often referred to verbal insults, or even just perceived criticism, as “punches” or “hits”. As someone who surrounded himself with people and created a life which meant he never had to face criticism or critical feedback of any kind, Johnny would often refer to even perceived criticism as “blows”, “jabs” or “right hooks”.
The Aquaman actress, 34, instead claims she feared Mr Depp, 57, was ‘going to kill’ her on several occasions – and says he would later blame his actions on ‘the monster’, the megastar’s alleged ‘alter ego’ she says she was ‘terrified of’.
On another day of extraordinary evidence, it was claimed:
- Amber Heard alleged that a cocaine-crazed Johnny Depp threatened to break the wrist of Amber Heard’s female friend because they were “flirting”;
- Ms Heard claims that her ex-husband would become so violent while on drink and drugs she feared he ‘might accidentally kill me without realising he had’;
Mr Depp, who was mobbed by fans outside court with one handing him a bouquet of flowers, felt that being insulted was like being punched by Amber Heard (pictured today) who denies she was violent
Ms Heard then waved to waiting fans and photographers at the entrance to the Royal Courts of Justice in the capital
Mr Depp (pictured today) has been accused of being jealous towards the majority of his ex-wife’s male co-stars and allegedly said she had affairs with at least eight of them
Amber Heard sketched giving evidence at the High Court in London yesterday while being watched by her ex-husband Johnny Depp who she has accused of threatening to kill her
On Tuesday, the 11th day of the trial at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Ms Heard will continue to be questioned over 14 allegations of domestic violence, which the tabloid’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) relies on in its defence of an April 2018 article that called Mr Depp a ‘wife beater’.
Johnny Depp trashed a caravan, threw glasses at Amber Heard and ripped open the front of her dress searching for narcotics after threatening to break her friend’s wrist for touching her on a cocaine-fuelled bender, his ex-wife claimed today.
The couple stayed at a trailer park in Hicksville, New York, in June 2013, when Ms Heard claims her megastar ex-husband exploded around the campfire when he believed another woman ‘flirted’ with her – calling Amber a ‘lesbian camp counsellor’.
In an explosive witness statement, published as she started her second day of evidence at the High Court in London, Ms Heard said: ‘He grabbed her by the wrist and threatened her by talking about the pressure that would be needed to break it if she didn’t admit that she was trying to flirt with me. Johnny and I went back to our trailer cabin where he continued to fight about it. By that point, the amount of cocaine he had taken affected his ability to make rational sense and he went into a manic state’.
Ms Heard the row then spilled into their trailer, which he allegedly ‘trashed in a rage’.
She said: ‘He broke light fixtures and he broke the frosted glass front of a cabinet, and I think he threw glasses at me. He accused me of being the moral police” and “lesbian camp counsellor” and of hiding his drugs. I had a pretty dress on that I’d dyed pink – and loved and wore all the time: he ripped one of the straps and then ripped it off me at the front, claiming to be searching for the drugs’.
Amber Heard smiled as she arrived at the High Court hand-in-hand with her girlfriend Bianca Butti for her second day in the witness box after making extraordinary claims about her tumultuous marriage to Johnny Depp.
Amber Heard smiled as she arrived at the High Court hand-in-hand with her girlfriend Bianca Butti for her second day in the witness box
Amber Heard arrives to give evidence for another day at the Johnny Depp v The Sun libel trial at the High Court
Mr Depp is accused of raging on cocaine during a 2013 row with Ms Heard who claims he threw glasses at her and ripped open her dress
Ms Heard has accused Mr Depp of verbal and physical abuse throughout their relationship, including screaming, swearing, punching, slapping, kicking, headbutting and choking her, as well as ‘extremely controlling and intimidating behaviour’.
Mr Depp, however, says he was ‘not violent towards Ms Heard – it was she who was violent to him’, and claims his ex-wife was ‘building a dossier’ of false allegations as an ‘insurance policy for later’.
On Monday, Ms Heard denied she had ‘thrown everything possible at Mr Depp’, telling the High Court: ‘I haven’t even scratched the surface.’
Yesterrday it also emerged Mr Depp made up childish names for Hollywood stars he accused Amber Heard of cheating with – including Leonardo ‘Pumpkin-head’ DiCaprio, the High Court heard yesterday.
He allegedly suspected his wife of sleeping with Eddie Redmayne, James Franco, Kevin Costner, Liam Hemsworth, Billy-Bob Thornton, Channing ‘Potato-head’ Tatum, Jim ‘Turd’ Sturgess and actress Kelli Garner.
Miss Heard said: ‘He demanded to know about any romantic scene and complained about how people can watch me ‘get ****ed on camera’.
‘I had to justify to him why I was doing any movie, and it was much worse if there was any kissing or a sex scene in it. He would taunt me about it – especially when he was drunk or high –and had derogatory nicknames for every one of my male co-stars he considered a sexual threat.’
uises on your faces. You are constantly asked how you did it. It’s frankly humiliating.’ Depp denied ever striking a woman.
‘I FELT LIKE A WILD HORSE IN A CAGE’
Depp told the court how his wife had mocked him as ‘fat’ and ‘washed up’ and told him his career was over. Yesterday, she claimed he had branded her a ‘fat ass’ and told her: ‘No one will hire you when your t**s and ass sag.’ She said: ‘I don’t think that he really respects women. He likes ones that validate his ego, sexy ones. He doesn’t like powerful women, and he saw me as one of those. I remember describing it to a friend at the time as feeling like a wild horse in a cage; it was as if he wanted to break me.’
THREE-WAY MARRIAGE WITH ‘THE MONSTER’
Amber Heard said: ‘I’ve always had a relationship with two people. One was with Johnny and I loved Johnny, and I was not threatened by him. I was terrified of ‘The Monster’. The Monster was the third party in this relationship.
‘He would blame all his actions on [this] self-created third party instead of himself.’
Miss Heard claimed Depp was ‘very good at manipulating people’, and after his violent episodes, would often come back with a ‘sobriety coin’ from an alcoholics’ support group claiming ‘this time it was the end of his drinking’.
But she said she was not able to confront him about his alcohol and drug abuse because it was ‘very triggering for him’, adding: ‘He would get angry and call me ‘the moral police’.’
‘I DID THROW PANS’
After hearing an audio recording, Mr Justice Nicol asked Miss Heard: ‘Was it the case you sometimes threw pots and pans at Mr Depp?’ She replied: ‘Only to escape him.’ Depp has claimed he cowered in bathrooms to escape his wife.
Miss Heard denied being the instigator of their arguments, insisting she was ‘never violent’ towards Depp and did not have a problem with her temper. She said none of the other witnesses had seen their arguments which were ‘behind closed doors’. She added: ‘I did sometimes use physical force to defend myself when I was being attacked, or overpowered, or felt threatened. I did, at times, throw objects at Johnny.’
She said an incident on December 15, 2015, when she alleges Depp headbutted her and ripped hair from her head, made her ‘genuinely scared that he might accidentally kill me’.
The court heard part of a two-hour row recorded between the couple with Miss Heard calling him a ‘big f***ing baby’ and admitted starting a ‘physical fight’ with him. She can be heard saying: ‘I did not punch you, I did not deck you, I hit you – but you’re fine.’
MUSHROOMS AND WINE
Amber Heard’s medical history was recorded by Depp’s private nurse as: ‘Client admits to anxiety, eating disorder, ADHD, bipolar disorder, dependence issues.’ The actress described this as ‘very incorrect’. Nurse Erin Boerum added: ‘AH reports history of substance abuse.’ Miss Heard described the nurse’s notes as ‘a mistake’, insisting: ‘I am not a habitual drug user.’
She admitted to enjoying ecstasy and ‘mushrooms’, including doing both together at her 30th birthday celebrations in April 2016 at the Coachella music festival in California with a ‘high profile actor’ friend, when Depp wasn’t there.
Miss Heard admitted she did like wine but denied guzzling two bottles of red wine in an hour as her ex-husband claimed.
She claimed Depp’s doctor had prescribed her a cocktail of medications ‘and they were constantly being updated and changed to keep me sedated or calm’.
‘LIKE DATING A KING’
Depp and Miss Heard met on the 2011 film The Rum Diary. She said: ‘He was engaging and intellectual and dark and funny. He knew so much about life. When we were together, it was magic. When Johnny wanted to be affectionate towards you, he was intensely affectionate, warm and charming. It was like I was dating a king, with his level of fame and the way he lived.’
‘LONELIEST’ WEDDING
Miss Heard told the court about her ‘lonely’ 2015 wedding night claiming ‘possessive’ Depp kept vanishing to take drugs.
She said they argued on the night over his substance use. ‘He had lost weight and he would disappear into the bathroom for long periods during the wedding,’ she told the court.
‘I tried to smile through it and entertain our guests. But I had never felt more lonely in my life.’
‘HADN’T SEEN HIS FILMS’
Depp branded his ex a gold digger and accused her of building a ‘dossier’ against him as part of her ‘hoax’ claims of domestic abuse. But she hit back: ‘My so-called ‘agenda’ in marrying him, for financial benefit or to somehow further my career – that is preposterous. I remained financially independent from him the whole time we were together. It is not true I told him I admired his films early in our relationship – I was always very clear with him that I hadn’t seen his movies.’
‘DOG OUT OF WINDOW’
The actress told of her fears for her miniature Yorkshire terrier Boo when Depp allegedly held her out of the window of a moving car. She said: ‘I was scared that he could have dropped her. There was like a quiet alarm because no one wanted him to drop the dog, but no one reacted so as not to antagonise him which might make him do something even crazier.’
NAKED PHOTOS
Miss Heard said somebody hacked into her iCloud account and stole naked photos. She said they were ‘intimate photographs of me naked’ which had then been ‘altered and manipulated with all sorts of degrading headlines’ and ‘released to the world without my consent’. She told the court: ‘Johnny blamed me for that’, adding: ‘As you can imagine, it was extremely distressing.’
‘WEAPONISED VICTIMHOOD’
She claims self-confessed drug and alcohol addict Depp ‘lives in a state of weaponised victimhood’ by always blaming his troubled childhood, and surrounds himself with ‘yes men’. She said: ‘He functions off zero accountability. He is always the victim. No one really gives him direct or honest feedback. It is very rare to see anyone – professionals, doctors, lawyers, film executives –say no to him. I tried to, but it didn’t go down well.’
Miss Heard claimed Depp – who enjoyed cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis – ‘passed out a few times in the bathroom and had a history of vomiting in his sleep’.
When they went to his private island in the Bahamas to detox in August 2014, she said: ‘It was hell. Johnny was in a state of absolute mania at times. In one moment he would ask for hugs, the next he would yell at me.’ She claimed on August 17, ‘he kicked and pushed me so that I fell on the ground and grabbed my hair and slapped me. He was in such a rage that he smashed a door so hard that it splintered’. Depp has denied this.
The case continues.