During Amber Heard’s second day on the stand in Johnny Depp’s defamation case against her, on May 5, she continued to characterize their time together as a cycle of loving highs and abusive lows — including an allegation of sexual assault with a foreign object one month into their marriage. Heard, wearing a cream-colored shirt and navy-black jacket, wept and struggled to catch her breath as she detailed the alleged assault. Depp, in a deep-blue suit, largely kept his head down. At multiple points during the proceeding, Depp seemed to snicker. Heard also detailed an alleged incident after the 2014 Met Gala where she thought he broke her nose. Heard also described Depp’s resentment over her work with James Franco as a “nightmare.”
Heard testified that Depp attacked her with a bottle in March 2015, describing her version of how Depp lost the tip of his middle finger. They got into an argument right after Heard arrived in Australia, where Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Depp suggested they take MDMA together, which she didn’t want to do. Heard said she wound up barricading herself in a room and getting some sleep. At some point during her time there, Depp started to beat her, she alleged. During the fight, Heard alleged that Depp threw bottles, littering the floor with glass. Heard alleged that her nightgown ripped off and that Depp sexually assaulted her when he penetrated her with a bottle. When Heard woke up the next day, she heard Marilyn Manson music playing downstairs. She saw blood on the walls and carpet. A painting in the house they were renting was defaced with a drawing of a penis. When Heard tried speaking with Depp, she “figured out he was missing a finger.” “What did you do?” she asked him.
The alleged Met Gala incident unfolded after Depp accused Heard of flirting with a woman. When they returned to their hotel room after the party, Depp allegedly shoved and grabbed Heard. “I remember he threw a bottle at me. It missed me, but it broke the chandelier,” she recalled. They struggled, and Depp hit her in the face, Heard alleged. “I think that was the first time I was like, ‘Is this a broken nose?’ At the time I was unsure what that feeling was, but I suspected I had a broken nose,” she continued. “And other than that, I was relatively unscathed. But I remember my nose being swollen, discolored, and I took a picture of my face.” At some point, Heard said, “I made a joke about it to my friend about how bad I looked.” That same month, in May 2014, Depp took issue with Heard’s work on The Adderall Diaries with Franco. “He was mad at me for taking on a job with James Franco. He hated, hated James Franco and was already accusing me of kind of secretly having a thing with him in the past since we had done Pineapple Express together,” Heard said. Depp’s anger about Franco boiled over on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles. He started hammering her with questions about “romantic” scenes with Franco. “‘Do you have something to tell me?’ to ‘You want to tell me how much you liked it? Tell me!’” Heard alleged Depp saying. Depp allegedly kicked her. “I felt like there was a blackness in his eyes,” she recalled.
During Heard’s time on the stand, she further detailed how Depp allegedly exerted more and more control over her career and life as their relationship progressed. One alleged incident illustrating this pattern unfolded in September 2013, when she was in the U.K. to film London Fields. Depp, who also had a shoot in England, joined her in London for several days, and they stayed at the hotel where they first “consummated their relationship.” “He got down on one knee and said, ‘I want you to be my girl, be my girl forever,’” Heard recalled. She thought that if they were married, the chaos would subside. Things took a turn shortly after they left. After being invited to hang out with co-stars, Heard said she felt pressure to ask Depp’s permission to attend. Depp allegedly told her “if I accepted the invitation and went out to a concert, that the engagement would be off, that the relationship would be off — and I was foolish, naïve for thinking that people could invite me to a concert in a platonic way.” While these allegations have long been public, jurors selected for the trial weren’t supposed to have much, if any, familiarity with this case beforehand — meaning they’re likely hearing Heard’s account for the first time. Depp’s $50 million lawsuit claims that her abuse allegations are false. So Heard’s defense and $100 million counterclaim hinge on proving that he abused her.
