Amber Heard Talks About Her Marriage Dissolving With Johnny Depp


Amber Heard testified on Monday defamation lawsuit filed by her ex-husbandJohnny Depp said he filed for divorce and a restraining order case against him in 2016 after two fights that caused him to worry about his safety.

“I knew I had to leave him,” said Ms. Heard. “I knew I wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t.”

But after detailing the collapse of their marriage for several hours, Ms. Heard was subjected to an aggressive cross-examination by Mr. Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, who sought to discredit the actor’s statement that he had beaten her repeatedly throughout their relationship.

Citing the events in which Ms. Heard testified that she had been beaten, Mr Depp’s lawyers showed photographs taken at the time, which showed no visible bruising or swelling. Ms. Heard said that after many incidents, she covered the wounds with make-up to keep the abuse hidden.

“You should see how she looks under makeup,” said Ms Heard of a photo she described taken the night after Mr. Depp hit her so hard she thought her nose was broken.

As the trial at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia enters its final two weeks, Ms. Heard spent the opening hours of the day finishing her testimony, then confronted Mr. Depp’s legal team, who questioned the accuracy of his statements about spousal abuse, which he obtained from his divorce. whether he actually donated the money he promised to charities, as he promised.

His testimony included Mr Depp’s statement of the issue of spousal abuse, which was the first time the paparazzi made public after photographing Ms. Heard in California court, and that he had received a temporary restraining order against him. He had what appeared to be a bruise under one eye, and he later told the court in a file that Mr Depp had thrown a cell phone in his face and hit him in the face during an argument about a week ago.

“Violence was now the norm and no exception,” Ms Heard told the jury on Monday.

Mr. Depp, 58, filed a defamation lawsuit against 36-year-old Ms Heard after the Washington Post published an article. oped Heard called himself “a public figure representing domestic abuse” in 2018. Mr. Depp was not named in the article, but he claimed openly implied their relationship. The jury is also considering a counterclaim brought by Ms Heard, who accused Mr Depp of slandering him when his former lawyer made statements saying his charges were a hoax.

In addition repeated physical abuseMiss Heard described multiple instances sexual assault by Mr. Depp. blamed him to be aggressive in relationship and refused to hit at all or sexually assaulting her.

Ms Heard testified on Monday about a confrontation that occurred after Mr. Depp missed his birthday dinner in April 2016 because he had a business meeting. When they were alone later that night, she started a physical fight, he said, and pushed her, grabbed her by the hair and threw a bottle of champagne at her, missing her.

Mrs Heard said she had not seen her then husband for about a month after that. But in May 2016, when Mr. Depp visited Ms. Heard’s loft in Los Angeles, the couple considered it a “joke” that Mr. Depp accused him or a friend of urinating on the couple’s bed. Ms Heard attributed the stool to one of the couple’s dogs, calling the accusation “illusory”.

During the confrontation, Ms. Heard said that she was on the cell phone with a friend and heard the commotion and screams, warning Ms. Heard that she was not safe. This prompted Mr. Depp to take the phone from him.

“She pulls her arm back over the phone and throws it in my face,” she said. “I put my head in my hands and immediately start crying.”

According to court documents, the friend on the phone called 911, but when the police arrived, Ms. Heard refused to cooperate.

“I wanted to protect Johnny,” she testified on Monday. “I didn’t want him to be arrested”

Two days later, however, she said she had filed for divorce, and a few days after that she applied for a restraining order because she was experiencing extreme anxiety and wanted assurances that Mr. Depp would not return to where she lived. (She agreed to drop her request for a permanent restraining order as part of their divorce settlement.)

Mr Depp’s account of these two events differed significantly from the testimony he had given earlier at the trial. He said he had an important meeting about his finances and that he was late for Ms. Heard’s birthday party, prompting her to attack him later that night. He testified that he punched the woman twice in the face before leaving the building and stopping elsewhere. Her mother died as the couple separated, and when she called Ms. Heard to let her know the situation, Mr. Depp said he was planning to file for her for divorce.

“Someone had to call,” he confirmed.

Mr Depp said the couple had argued about a stool they found on an employee’s bed last month when he returned to the attic to pick up some of his belongings. Mr. Depp said he didn’t throw the phone at him, instead “throwing it” on the sofa. He accused Ms. Heard of pretending to be injured during the shootout to convince her friends that she was in some sort of danger.

“’Stop hitting me, Johnny!’ She screams in her most frightened, sad voice'” Mr. Depp testified.

The court also played on Monday an audio recording of a phone call between the couple in June 2016, in which Mr Depp challenged Ms. Heard as to whether he believed the charges against which he had applied for a restraining order were true.

“Do you believe all this, Amber?” Mr Depp said on the call. “Do you believe I am an abuser?”

“Yes!” Mrs. Heard answered over and over again.

More than two years after she was given a temporary restraining order, the Washington Post published Ms. Heard’s column with broader policy-based arguments for national responses to gender-based violence. Ms. Heard said she accepted the op-ed because she wanted to raise awareness about these issues, not to add details about her experiences with Mr. Depp at the time or to promote her movie.

Ms Heard, who is defending the counterclaim, also testified about the statements of Mr Depp’s former attorney, which sought to discredit his accusations by saying that reliving the accounts of harassment he shared in court was “torture”.

“I asked him to leave me alone,” said Ms. Heard of Mr. Depp. “I wanted to move on with my life and he won’t let me.”



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