Jury shown Amber Heard’s love notes to Johnny Depp after alleged assault in Australia

Entries from Amber Heard’s diary have been revealed as footage shows a secret visit from her co-star while Johnny Depp was away. Warning: Graphic

Jurors have been shown a video of Amber Heard escorting James Franco into a lift up to the LA penthouse apartment she shared with then-husband Johnny Depp one day before she filed for divorce.

The late-night visit on May 22, 2016, was one day after Heard alleges that Depp bashed her in the face with a mobile phone. They both have their backs to the camera and their heads bowed in the footage.

At one point, Franco affectionately rested his head on her neck.

Amber Heard gets into the penthouse lift with James Franco.

Depp has accused Heard and Franco of having an affair during their marriage – an allegation they’ve both denied.

Heard, 36, confirmed that it was Franco in the video and that the two former Pineapple Express co-stars were going to her penthouse.

“That’s where I lived, yes,” she testified

In a dramatic day of testimony, Heard was grilled on the stand about why she purchased a knife inscribed “until death” for Depp after testifying he was already “hitting” her and saying that she feared for her life.

Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez continued her cross-examination of Heard as part of the multimillion-dollar defamation suit filed against the actress by her ex-husband, Depp, on Tuesday.

US actress Amber Heard looks on in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 17, 2022. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP.

Vasquez challenged Heard’s account of when her allegations of abuse by Depp began, noting that Heard initially said 2013 but then said she recalled some incidents in 2012.

“He was hitting me in 2012,” Heard said.

“He just took a break in the middle.”

Vasquez then called for a knife to be brought into the court and showed it to Heard and the jury. The court was told that the actress gifted the weapon to Depp in 2012 during their volatile relationship. The jury had previously been shown a photo of the weapon that had “Until Death” inscribed in Spanish.

A Fairfax County Deputy Sheriff officer holds the knife that actor Heard gave to Johnny Depp in 2012. Picture: AFP

“That’s the knife you gave to the man who was hitting you, right?” Vasquez asked the Aquaman star.

“The man who was allegedly abusing you … the man who would get drunk and violent with you, right?”

Heard responded: “I wasn’t worried that he was going to stab me with it when I gave it to him, that is for certain.”

A picture of Johnny Depp, whose finger is bandaged after the Gold Coast incident, and Amber Heard on holiday in Australia.

Depp’s lawyer then moved onto questions about the couple’s infamous fight while on the Gold Coast in 2015.

Depp testified that Heard instigated an argument that resulted in her throwing a vodka bottle at him, resulting in glass severing the tip of his fingers. Heard testified that Depp went into a rage while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, lashing out on furniture and believes his severed finger while smashing a wall-mounted phone.

Amber Heard’s letter to Johnny Depp

“Mr Depp lost the tip of his finger after you threw a bottle at him, isn’t that right?” Vasquez said.

“That is incorrect,” Heard said, glancing at times over at the jury.

“You’re the one who assaulted someone with a bottle in Australia, isn’t that right, Miss Heard?”

“I didn’t assault Johnny in Australia. I didn’t assault Johnny ever,” Heard responded.

#JohnnyDepp's attorney questioned #AmberHeard on gifting Depp a knife during the period that Heard claimed that he was hitting her.

"This is the knife you gave to the man who would get drunk and violent with you right?" Attorney Camille Vasquez asked. @LawCrimeNetworkpic.twitter.com/WuvHNj9ci9

— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) May 17, 2022

Then, Vasquez stated to Heard, “That night in Australia, after you cut off his finger with a bottle, you weren’t scared of him at all.”

Looking toward the jury, Heard said, “This is a man who tried to kill me, of course it is scary, he’s also my husband.”

Johnny Depp speaks to his lawyer Camille Vasquez in the courtroom. Picture: AP

Vasquez pushed Heard as to the sequence of events in her testimony, which includes Depp allegedly sexually assaulting her with a bottle, but Heard insisted she has never testified to a sequence of events.

“Just to be clear, you’re putting in order … I have never claimed that I can remember the exact sequence,” Heard said. “This was a multi-day assault that took place over three horrible days.”

Vasquez: You're the one that assaulted someone with a bottle in Australia isn't that right, Miss Heard?#AmberHeard - I didn't assault Johnny in Australia. I didn't assault Johnny ever. #JohnnyDepppic.twitter.com/9inp6ip1TG

— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) May 17, 2022

Vasquez also noted that Heard did not seek medical treatment after the alleged assault. “There is not a single medical record for any of these injuries,” she said.

Vasquez then displayed messages written in red and black paint on the mirror in the couple’s Queensland rental home on the night of the alleged assault. Heard denied writing them, claiming that the author of the rambling notes was Depp, describing them as his “crazy conversations with himself.”

Amber Heard gestures in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse. Picture: AP

One message written in black read: “She loves naked photos of herself. So modern, so hot.”

Another written in red stated: “Call Carly Simon said it better babe.”

The couple, who were newlyweds at the time, were living in Australia while Depp was shooting a fifth instalment in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.

On Tuesday, Depp’s lawyer read entries from a journal that Heard said the couple kept to share love notes.

“True love isn’t about just the madness of passion or instead picking the safety of peace. No, it’s about both,” Heard wrote in May 2015, two months after Depp’s finger injury.

“I still, perhaps more than ever, want to rip you apart, devour you and savour the taste,” she continued.

In another excerpt after their July 2015 honeymoon aboard the Orient Express train, Heard said she “couldn’t imagine a more gorgeous honeymoon”.

“I love you more and more every passing day,” she added.

Heard had told jurors previously that Depp assaulted her and wrapped a T-shirt around her neck during the trip.

US actor Johnny Depp and his lawyer Ben Chew arrive in the courtroom gallery at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, May 17, 2022. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP.

Heard testified on Monday that she filed for divorce from the Pirates of the Caribbean star in May 2016 because she feared for her life.

“I had to leave him,” Heard said. “I knew I wouldn’t survive if I didn’t. I was so scared that it was going to end really badly for me.” Heard said Depp would become a physically and sexually abusive “monster” when he was drinking and her efforts to curtail his drug and alcohol use had proven futile.

“The monster had been this thing that was now the normal and not the exception,” she told the seven-person jury hearing the case in Fairfax, Virginia. “The violence was now normal.” The 58-year-old Depp, during his four days on the witness stand, denied ever striking Heard and claimed that she was the one who was frequently violent.

Depp filed the suit against Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

Heard, who had a starring role in Aquaman, did not name Depp in the op-ed, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking US$50 million (A$72m) in damages.

US actors Amber Heard and Johnny Depp watch as the jury leaves the courtroom at the end of the day at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, May 16, 2022. Picture: Steve Helber / AFP.

The Texas-born Heard countersued, asking for US$100 million (A$144m) and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.

Heard said the trial has forced her to live “over and over again the most intimate, embarrassing, deeply humiliating and personal things that I’ve survived.” “I want to move on and I want Johnny to move on,” she said. “I just want him to leave me alone.” Filing for divorce was “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” the actress said.

“It was hard because I loved Johnny so much,” she said. “I loved him so much.” Heard said the same week she filed for divorce she sought a temporary restraining order following an argument during which Depp threw a mobile phone at her, hitting her in the face.

#AmberHeard arrives at the courthouse ⁦@LawCrimeNetwork⁩ #JohnnyDeppvAmberHeardpic.twitter.com/FRdM5PYtb8

— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) May 17, 2022

Judge Penney Azcarate has scheduled closing arguments in the case for May 27, after which it will go to the jury.

Depp’s lawyers have put experts on the stand who testified that he has lost millions because of the abuse accusations, including a $22.5-million payday for a sixth instalment of “Pirates.” Depp filed the defamation complaint in the United States after losing a separate libel case in London in November 2020 that he brought against The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.”

Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, and Heard met in 2009 on the set of The Rum Diary and were married in February 2015. Their divorce was finalised two years later.

Originally published as Jury shown Amber Heard’s love notes to Johnny Depp after alleged assault in Australia