Amber Heard says Johnny Depp became a ‘monster’ during alleged abuse
Amber Heard has told a London court that she was “terrified” of Johnny Depp’s volatile behaviour, describing how she would cover up “humiliating” facial bruises after he allegedly assaulted her. Warning: Graphic content
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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Amber Heard told a London court that she was “terrified of the monster” that Johnny Depp would become and that hiding bruises “was humiliating”.
Ms Heard, 34, was grilled for a full court day during Mr Depp’s libel case against The Sun newspaper about a 2018 article that accused him of being a “wife beater.”
She repeatedly denied she was lying about her injuries or her allegations of domestic violence against Mr Depp, 57.
The ex-wife of the Pirates of the Caribbean star said: “I wasn’t terrified of Johnny as Johnny. I was terrified of the monster who had become part of our relationship. I was terrified of the monster.”
Eleanor Laws, for Mr Depp, accused Ms Heard of lying about her injuries and colluding with her friends to cause damage to the actor’s penthouse apartment in Los Angeles in May 2016 to frame him after she called police.
And she also denied that she faked a bruise on her cheek, which she said that she used makeup to cover.
She said that she always found “days two or three” after an assault were the hardest to cover bruises with makeup concealer.
“I had to cover up my bruises to not look injured, it is horribly embarrassing to cover up bruises on your face, you’re constantly asked about it. Frankly it’s humiliating,” Ms Heard said.
Ms Heard denied claims from Ms Laws that she had changed, or embellished her version of events, saying she had not changed her account.
Ms Laws asked whether Ms Heard was “insecure and jealous” when Mr Depp was away filming.
And the court heard an audio recording where she had said she hit Mr Depp.
Ms Heard, when asked by Justice Nicol, also accepted that she had thrown pots and pans at Mr Depp, but said it was to get away from him.
Ms Heard, who gave her $10 million divorce settlement to charity, said that Mr Depp did not want a prenuptial agreement, adding that the only way out of the marriage “was death.”
She was pressed about an incident where Mr Depp allegedly threw a phone at her head and was asked why she did not duck or defend herself.
“I’m bad at guessing exact distances but I’m guessing about six to eight feet,” Ms Heard said.
“I didn’t expect for him to do that, that way. It happened slowly in that moment but it happened quickly in real life.”
Ms Heard also claimed that Mr Depp’s rings would hurt her when he attacked.
“Johnny is quite a bit bigger than me and he wears these heavy rings on all of his fingers,” she said.
She said she was sometimes unsure if he punched her with a fist, or a slap, but added: “When that hand full of those big heavy metal rings lands on your skull it makes quite an impact.”
At one point on the verge of tears, Ms Heard put her hands to her neck to describe the way she claimed that Mr Depp, 57, grabbed.
“The same with my chin, he kept trying to get a hold of my chin,” she said.
Ms Heard said she did not want to call other witnesses liars, but she stood by her version of events which had been contradicted by Mr Depp and some of his staff.
DEPP ACCUSES HEARD OF AFFAIRS WITH A-LISTERS
Johnny Depp called Leonardo DiCaprio “pumpkin-head” as he accused his ex-wife Amber Heard of having an affair with him and a string of other actors, a London court heard.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star also jealously claimed Heard, 34, had affairs with Australian actor Liam Hemsworth, James Franco, Kevin Costner and female co-star Kelli Garner.
The abuse would get worse when he was “drunk or high”, according to Heard’s seven witness statements which were presented to London’s High Court in his libel case against The Sun over an article that he says falsely labelled him a “wife beater.”
On day 10 of the case, the court was told of Heard’s claims, including that:
– Heard thought Depp would kill her when he grabbed her neck in a Gold Coast property in 2015;
– Depp threatened to “cut up her face” if Heard left him and that she would end up “sucking c*** under the freeway”;
– Depp would try to control what Heard wore, and would call her a “slut” if she wore revealing clothes, and;
– Depp wound up like a baseball pitcher and threw a mobile phone at her in Los Angeles in 2016 that hit her in the cheek.
Heard, who claimed she was so stressed during her marriage to Depp that she dropped to 45kg, took the stand on Monday night wearing a dark skirt, with a pleated cream short sleeved shirt.
Her hair was in one long braid on the left hand side of her face.
Depp’s defence switched to a female barrister for cross examination of Heard after David Sherbourne, QC, had previously run the case.
Heard appeared relaxed in the witness box, politely accepting drinks of water and smiling at some of the questions from Eleanor Laws, QC, who repeatedly accused her of being a liar.
She denied medical notes that claimed she had a drug addiction and a heavy consumption of alcohol were correct.
Heard claimed: “Johnny’s doctor had me on a long list of medication, they were constantly updated and changed in order to keep me sedated. Basically to keep my body from responding to the world I was living (in).”
Ms Laws asked whether Heard had been seen vomiting in a car park after excess alcohol consumption, but she claimed it was her sister Whitney who was pregnant at the time, despite the medical notes.
Heard said she had taken MDMA and magic mushrooms at the time she split from Depp in May 2016 and spent a day in bed.
But she denied she had an alcohol problem.
“I think that is wrong, I do like red wine, two or three glasses a night, sometimes more, sometimes less, but never a bottle,” Heard said.
Ms Laws said she had paid one of her friends $1800 despite saying moments earlier that she had never worked for her.
Depp and Heard married in 2015, despite Heard claiming that he had assaulted her before the wedding.
The couple did not sign a prenuptial agreement, and Heard, who gave her $10 million divorce settlement to charity, denied she had sped up the date of the wedding to avoid doing so.
‘I REALLY THOUGHT I MIGHT DIE’
Heard said she thought Depp would “kill” her when he allegedly attacked her in a Gold Coast mansion, according to her witness statement.
In one of the seven witness statements Heard provided to the court, she alleged that Depp attacked her, grabbing her neck, when they were on the Gold Coast in March 2015.
“I remember thinking he was going to kill me in that moment. The floor was wet and I was slipping … I was kicking my feet trying to stand up, but nothing was catching,” she said.
“He was screaming at me, over and over again, ‘You ruined my life, I hate you, I’m going to f**ing kill you and I’ll f*** your corpse’.
“He said it so loud and over and over: ‘I am going to f***ing kill you’. I really thought I might die.”
In verbal evidence, Heard denied that the couple had argued over a prenuptial agreement, which the couple did not sign before they married.
And she said under questioning from Depp’s lawyers that she had married him after she had been subjected to several incidents of alleged domestic violence.
“I had very little decision-making power in that relationship,” she said.
Heard denied that she moved the couple’s wedding date forward to avoid signing a prenuptial agreement.
It came after Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman was accused of posting threatening messages about witnesses in the libel case in London’s High Court.
Lawyers for The Sun demanded Mr Waldman, who was sitting in the courtroom, to stop posting “macabre” messages.
The lawyer, who was accused in court last week of being the “biggest ass**** under the sun”, posted a message after Laura Divenere gave evidence.
“In Memoriam @TheSun’ false line of questioning, that they knew was false. Keep up the good work, Laura Divenere’s lawyer,” he wrote on Twitter.
He also posted an image of correspondence that he claimed Ms Divenere had the chance to change her witness statement, which she claimed Mr Waldman had bullied her into signing.
Lawyers for The Sun called out the message during the trial, labelling it “threatening” and “sinister”.
Justice Nicol did not sanction Mr Waldman, but added: “The phrase in memoriam is unwelcome.”
It is the first opportunity for Heard to fight back against two weeks of attacks on her character, delivered as prosecution witnesses are cross-examined.
Heard’s evidence is the most anticipated part of the three-week blockbuster libel case.
It is also understood that the actress is likely to release key details about Depp’s personal nicknames he had for other Hollywood stars.
The Sun is claiming that it has evidence of 14 allegations of domestic violence, including when Depp threw a mobile phone at Heard’s face, pulled out clumps of her hair and shoved her into a table tennis table with such force that it collapsed.
“I am only interested in the truth, I’m not interested in manipulating anyone,” Heard said in an audio recording played to the court last week.
Heard is only a witness in the proceedings, but the evidence has overwhelmingly concentrated on what she did during the marriage.
There have been claims that she was violent towards Depp, that she had an affair with Tesla owner Elon Musk, which the billionaire denies, and that she was a “gold digger”.
Heard said in that audio that she had kept the alleged abuse hidden, which was why no one had seen her bruises.
“It’s not your fault, you didn’t know – I hid it from everyone. It’s what people do,” she said.
It was also alleged that she “stole” her former assistant’s rape story and used it as her own.
However, it was understood that her evidence would outline how she had no claims on Depp’s money, and gave a $10 million divorce payment to charity.
Heard, who was a minor celebrity in the United States before she married Depp, has become a household name because of the court case.
The London libel case was a curtain raiser to a US lawsuit where Depp was suing her personally for $71 million over a Washington Post article about domestic violence that did not name the actor.
She has a personal wealth of $13 million.
Depp has chosen to fight that case in Virginia, where the Post’s printing presses and servers were based, despite the allegations happening in California.
Depp has been appearing at court each day in a bizarre circus for dozens of television and news photographers, while Heard has been attending court via a side door.
Originally published as Amber Heard says Johnny Depp became a ‘monster’ during alleged abuse