Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of abuse during their relationship
LONDON - Amber Heard has accused Johnny Depp of abusing her physically and verbally during their volatile marriage and said he came to fear for her life on several occasions.
On Monday, on the first day of his testimony at the Supreme Court in London during Depp's defamation lawsuit against the tabloid The Sun for an April 2018 article in which he was branded a “battering husband”, Heard also rejected allegations that she was a heavy drinker and drug user, as well as a controlling and abusive woman.
"I was never violent with him," said the model and actress in court. "When I felt that my life was in danger, I tried to defend myself."
Depp, 57, is suing The Sun's editor, News Group Newspapers, and the newspaper's executive editor, Dan Wootton, over the article. The Hollywood star, who flatly denies having abused Heard, was in court to hear the statement from his ex-wife, who will present her testimony over three days.
Heard also described an incident that would have occurred in January 2015 related to a prenuptial agreement between her and Depp.
"We had an argument in a hotel room in Tokyo that ended with Johnny kneeling on my back, hitting my back and head," he said.
In a written statement released when he took the stand, Heard, 34, said that during his relationship with Depp he endured “punches, slaps, kicks, head butts and strangulation,” and that “some incidents were so severe that I feared that was going to kill me, either intentionally or simply losing control and going too far. "
According to Heard, Depp "explicitly threatened to kill me several times, especially towards the end of our relationship," and blamed her actions "on a third person of her own making" whom the actor refers to as "the monster."
Heard said Depp has "a unique ability to use her charisma to convey a certain impression of reality" and that she is "very good at manipulating people."
Heard has been present at the trial, in which Depp presented her evidence over the course of five days.
Depp and Heard met on the set of the 2011 comedy "The Rum Diary" and were married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year and it was finalized in 2017 .
The Sun's defense is based on 14 accusations made by Heard against Depp for alleged acts of violence between 2013 and 2016, in places like the actor's private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia, a private plane and the penthouse of the couple in Los Angeles.
Depp alleges that Heard was the abuser in the relationship, which he has compared to "a crime scene waiting to happen."
In nine days of Supreme Court testimony, Justice Andrew Nicol also heard from several current and former employees who have supported Depp's version of events.
Heard alleged in a written statement that Depp "often did not remember what he had done" due to the amount of alcohol and drugs he used, and that "for him it was as if it had not happened."
