Amber Heard testifies she feared she ‘wouldn’t survive’ if she stayed with Johnny Depp as his lawyers accuse her of abuse in cross-examination

Amber Heard told jurors on Monday that she decided to divorce Johnny Depp because she was afraid she “wouldn’t survive” if she stayed in the relationship.

Heard resumed her testimony after a 10-day break in the defamation trial in Fairfax, Virginia. Heard recounted the final months of her marriage to Depp, including a series of violent incidents in which she alleges Depp would choke her, hit her and throw objects at her during drug-fueled rages. Depp has previously denied accusations of violence.

Heard filed for divorce in May 2016, after Depp allegedly threw a phone at her, hitting her in the face, during an argument at the couple’s downtown Los Angeles apartment.

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Amber Heard and Johnny Depp

“I knew I had to leave him. I knew I wouldn’t survive it if I didn’t,” she testified. “I was so scared that it was going to end really badly for me… The violence was now normal and not the exception… I believe he would have taken it too far and I wouldn’t be here.”

“Unfortunately, the violence became almost normal, especially towards the end,” the 36-year-old Aquaman star said in court, with Depp looking on. She also told the jury that Depp allegedly punched her and put out cigarettes on her skin, and that she and Depp used the safeword “couch” to signal “truce” when they were fighting.

Heard began her testimony on May 4. She has previously told the jury Depp repeatedly sexually assaulted her and that she feared for her life, which Depp has denied. Depp is suing Heard for $US50 million (approx. $71.65 million), claiming that she fabricated her allegations against him and destroyed his career in the process of advancing her own. His lawyers are expected to begin their cross-examination later today.

Heard testified Monday that Depp could not stay sober and that his mental health began to unravel by early 2016. She said that he would seem to have conversations with people who were not there, and accuse her of saying things she had not said.

The police were called to the couple’s apartment on the night of the phone incident. The officers have previously testified that Heard declined to make a report, and they did not see evidence of a crime.

Heard explained that she did not name Depp or cooperate with the officers because she did not want him to be arrested.

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Amber Heard and Johnny DeppJohnny Depp

“I wanted to protect Johnny,” she said. “I didn’t want him to be in trouble. I didn’t want this to come out.”

A few days later, though, she filed for a domestic violence restraining order. She said that she did so because she wanted to change the locks in the apartment, and because security would always let him in without warning.

“I couldn’t sleep. I would wake up in a panic. I was losing hair. I was losing weight,” she said. “I was scared and very conflicted.”

Jurors were shown a series of photos of Heard’s face with a bruise on her right cheek. Depp’s lawyers have already presented testimony from people who saw Heard around that time and did not recall seeing a bruise on her face. Heard testified in detail about how she would conceal the bruise with makeup before leaving the house, noting that paparazzi would typically photograph her the minute she stepped out the door.

“I always wear makeup,” she said. “I’m not going to walk around LA with bruises on my face.”

Johnny Depp’s lawyers accuse Amber Heard of abusing him

Last month, Depp testified that Heard abused him, and that he would flee whenever their arguments got confrontational.

His attorney Camille Vasquez said Depp “told the world he was a victim of domestic violence.”

“Mr. Depp is your victim, isn’t he?” Vasquez asked Heard in cross-examination.

“No, ma’am,” Heard replied.

Vasquez also asked Heard about the lack of contemporaneous medical records that would document the abuse. Heard testified that she did not seek medical attention after Depp allegedly raped her with a bottle during a trip to Australia in 2015.

“I did not want to tell anyone,” she said.

Amber Heard was pressed about her claims Johnny Depp broke her nose after the 2014 Met Gala

Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez pressed Heard about her claims he broke her nose after the Met Gala in 2014, citing photos that show Heard without injuries.

“For the record, I don’t know that it was broken,” Heard testified. “You should have seen how it looked under makeup.”

Vasquez asked Heard why she had not produced photos for the jury of herself from the night after the alleged attack, saying that the claimed injuries aren’t seen in the photos.

“I would very much like to,” Heard replied. “It’s not my job.”

Vasquez entered the aforementioned photos into evidence at this stage, and asked Heard, “Your nose doesn’t appear to be injured in any of these pictures?”

Heard replied: “I’m wearing makeup and makeup covers up swelling, right?”

Amber Heard admits she did not donate divorce settlement

Towards the end of Day 16 of the trial, during cross-examination, Heard said she did not fulfill her pledge to donate her $US7 million (approx. $10.4 million) divorce settlement between the American Civil Liberties Union and a children’s hospital in California.

Earlier in the trial, the general counsel of the ACLU testified that the organisation has received only $US1.3 million (approx. $1.865 million) of the $US3.5 million (approx. $5 million) pledge, including $US500,000 (approx. $717,000) from an account linked to Elon Musk, who dated Heard after she split up with Depp.

Heard made public statements after the divorce in which she claimed to have donated the full amount. On direct examination, she said she could not afford to make all of the payments because Depp had sued her, but she intends to fulfill the full pledge over time. She also said the suit has cost her more than $US6 million (approx. $8.6 million) – though that testimony was cut off by an objection.

On cross-examination, Vasquez noted more than a year elapsed between the time Heard received the final payment from the divorce settlement and the time Depp sued her. Vasquez also repeatedly tried to get Heard to acknowledge she had lied when she said she had donated the full amount. But Heard maintained she uses “pledge” and “donate” synonymously.

Heard said she was being accused of being a gold digger and a liar, and that therefore it was important to make clear that she didn’t want anything from Depp.

“You did want something, didn’t you?” Vasquez asked.

“I didn’t want anything and I didn’t get anything,” Heard said.

“You wanted Mr. Depp’s money?” she asked.

“Didn’t get it – wasn’t interested in it,” she said. “I loved Johnny. That’s why I was with him.”

Johnny Depp allegedly threw a magnum of champagne at Amber Heard on her birthday

In April 2016, when Heard turned 30, she told the court Depp would disappear for days on what she suspected were drug benders, though he claimed to her he would be away for meetings.

Heard had a birthday dinner planned for April 21, which Depp did not attend despite Heard wanting him to, and she said she was upset about that.

Depp, when he returned home, according to Heard’s testimony, noticed she was unhappy with him, and then a verbal argument began, which turned physical. Depp allegedly blocked Heard’s exit from the bedroom.

Heard said a shoving match followed, and that Depp grabbed a magnum bottle of champagne and threw it at her. She said the bottle left a hole in the canvas of a painting she loved as it went through it.

Depp then allegedly picked up Heard’s mobile phone and threw it out of an open window onto the street below, and then Heard said she grabbed Depp’s phone and threw it out of the window too.

Johnny Depp allegedly grabbed Amber Heard by the pubic bone

During the fight on Heard’s 30th birthday, she says Depp grabbed her by the hair and used her body to knock items off a table.

“I remember trying to fight him off of me,” Heard said in her testimony, and then said they later returned to the bedroom, where they shoved each other again.

Heard says Depp chest-bumped her “in kind of a bro-y way” and then allegedly grabbed her by the pubic bone.

“He kind of pushed me down and was asking me, ‘You’re so tough? You wanna be tough like a man now?'” Heard claimed to the court.

“I remember feeling exhausted and crying,” Heard said, before testifying that she then asked him, “‘Can we not fight like this? Can we just not do this, please?’ I was just so tired, hurt. I remember crying, feeling ridiculous.”

Heard told the jury she said “couch,” which was the couple’s safe word, and after, Depp allegedly told her that she got what she deserved, as well as telling her no one would ever love her, and that she better get used to waking up alone.

Heard recalled that as he stormed out of the house that night, Depp yelled at her, “Happy f—ing birthday!”

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Amber Heard denies she defecated on Johnny Depp’s bed

Heard denied Depp’s allegation that she had left faeces in a bed at one of his homes following a fight on her 30th birthday. A security guard had testified that Heard told him the faeces were a “horrible practical joke.”

Heard said she did not commit any kind of prank that day, adding that she was “not in a pranking mood.”

“I had just been attacked on my 30th birthday by my husband, with whom I was desperately in love and knew I needed to leave,” she said.

Amber Heard recalls meeting ‘real gentleman’ Elon Musk at the Met Gala in 2016

After the fight on Heard’s birthday, she testified she had not been in contact with Depp for a month, but they reconnected in May 2016 as they had to attend the Met Gala together as Ralph Lauren’s guests.

Heard said in the lead up to the Met Gala, she could not reach Depp or his team, so she ended up going to the New York City event alone.

“He effectively stood me up,” she told the jury, before recalling how at the event, while she was waiting to walk the red carpet, she met Elon Musk – though she didn’t recognise him at first.

“[Musk] was there with his mother,” she told the jury. “He reminded me we had met before… He seemed like a real gentlemen. He was really nice.”

Heard said she and Musk eventually became friends.

Jury shown photos of Amber Heard’s bruised face after Johnny Depp allegedly threw a phone at her

“This is my face after Johnny threw a phone at it,” Heard said as the jury were shown photos that were taken by a friend after Depp allegedly attacked Heard in May 2016.

A red bruise on Heard’s right cheek could be seen in the photos, which were taken from different angles.

The actress testified she and Depp reunited after they spent a month apart, when Depp’s mother, Betty Sue, died. She said the former couple made a plan for Depp to go over during the day and limit his drinking, and that he was talking about “faeces” during the meeting.

Heard then called her friend Tillet Wright and put him on speaker, and Tillet told her, “Amber, get out of the house. You’re not safe.”

Depp, according to Heard, heard Wright on the speaker phone and came down the stairs. He allegedly grabbed the phone and started yelling “really nasty stuff” at the person on the other end of the call, such as, according to Heard, “You wanna have my bitch? You can have her.”

Heard said Depp then got the phone and hurled it at her face, and it hit around her eye. She alleged that Depp then taunted her, yelling, “Oh, I hit you, huh?” before he “whacked” her on the head and dragged her off the couch.

Depp then, according to Heard, yanked her hair back and mocked her, saying, “Let me see how bad I hurt you this time.”

At this point, Heard testified that Raquel, her best friend at the time, entered the house and ran up to Heard and shielded her from Depp with her body, saying, “Johnny, no,” as she put her palms up against his chest.

Johnny Depp allegedly used a wine bottle as a ‘battering ram’ to trash a house

Photographs shown to the jury depict rooms Heard said Depp trashed after an alleged altercation in May 2016.

Heard’s office can be seen with papers across the floor, and framed photos and artworks are shown to be smashed, and wine is seen spilt on the floor.

Depp, according to Heard, used a large wine bottle “as a bat of sorts” and a “battering ram” as he allegedly vandalised the house.

Heard said from the stand all the images were taken when police were called to the Los Angeles apartment after the alleged phone-throwing incident.

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Amber Heard

Amber Heard says Johnny Depp assaulted her on her honeymoon

Heard told jurors that Depp slammed her against a wall and wrapped a shirt around her neck during their 2015 honeymoon on the Orient Express.

The pair married in February 2015 and took their honeymoon on the Orient Express train in July of that year after Depp finished filming the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Under questioning from her lawyers, Heard said the couple argued about whether Depp should drink during the trip. She said they had a loving relationship when Depp was sober but that he often turned violent when drinking or using drugs.

In a sleeping car on the train, Heard said, Depp slapped her across the face and repeatedly slammed her body against a wall. He then took his shirt off and wrapped it around her neck, she told the jury.

“That’s how I woke up the next morning,” Heard said. “I woke up with it still around my neck and a giant knot on the back of my head.”

Johnny Depp ‘was obsessed with dog poop’ according to Amber Heard

After the alleged May 2016 attack by Depp, Heard said that police were called to their Los Angeles apartment, and she refused to name him as the perpetrator.

“I did not want them to arrest Johnny,” she said on the stand. “I just refused to cooperate.”

The next day, Depp sent her a text message that called her “shameless” for letting her friend work out of the penthouse, and brought up the idea of getting a divorce.

“I tried to make it work and you just turned more and more into a spoiled brat,” Depp wrote in text messages shown to the court. “All you wanted wars to make the f—ing miserable. Well, I’m finally there. I’ll never be able to understand how I fell in love with you…”

When her attorney asked Heard if the night before, the duo had discussed divorce, Heard said, “We didn’t discuss divorce. He was obsessed with dog poop.”

Amber Heard gets emotional about courthouse bruise photo

A photo where Heard is seen with what seems to be a bruise on her face, which was taken at a Los Angeles courthouse the day a temporary restraining order was filed by her against Depp in May 2016, was shown to the court.

Heard got emotional as she recalled photographers “just [surrounding] me as I walked out of that courthouse” and “screamed horrible things.”

Depp has previously accused Heard of using makeup to paint the bruise on her face that day, which she denies.

Amber Heard claims Johnny Depp launched a ‘smear campaign’ against her

Heard told the jury that Depp launched a “sophisticated smear campaign” against her in the aftermath of her filing for divorce in May 2016, in order to damage her career and reputation.

According to her testimony, Heard tried to get Depp to “stop the smear campaign,” saying, “I was begging not to deal with this, to be where I’m sitting today.”

The actress alleged that Depp threatened to make her unhirable in Hollywood.

“Johnny told me that he would ruin me,” she told the court. “That no one would ever touch me – professionally that no one would ever work with me again. That I would never work again. That he would ruin my career.”

Heard said that the public feud between her and Depp has been a “deeply humiliating” experience.

“I have my worst, most painful things I’ve gone through, painful memories, things I’ve narrowly survived,” she said on the stand. “It’s torture. I am in so much pain emotionally.”

“I just wanted him to leave me alone,” Heard continued.

“I wanted to move on with my life and he won’t let me by making statements like this. He won’t let me.

“I wanna move on with my life. I have a baby. I want to move on,” she said. “I want Johnny to move on too. I want him to leave me alone.”

Amber Heard told Johnny Depp she was not after his money

Phone calls between the couple from 2016 were played for the court, where Heard can be heard fuming at being called “a liar and a gold-digger.”

“I’m not lying about any of this s–t and I’m not after any of your money,” Heard says in the recording, and she said Depp “refused” to not engage with the media about their divorce.

“He was calling me a liar and he was forcing me to prove it and I knew that was not going to be good for him,” Heard said on the stand.

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Amber Heard

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp ‘fell back in love’ after fingertip fight

March 2015 was when the couple fought and Depp lost the tip of his finger, and it was after that fight that Heard said the former couple “fell back in love” again.

She said in the American spring of 2015, the couple returned to Australia after Depp quit drugs.

“We fell back in love,” she said, testifying that they were speaking about having children and buying a farm together. “We were talking about the future.”

“We were in a beautiful, peaceful period,” Heard said.

Heard’s attorney asked how she felt about returning to the house where she and Depp had the fight, and she said being there did not bother her.

“Johnny was my home … and that home was often really violent,” Heard told the jury.

Johnny Depp allegedly called Amber Heard a ‘whore’ for considering James Franco TV project

Heard said Depp took issue with her filming sex scenes or appearing nude on-screen, and called her a “whore” for considering doing a television project with James Franco.

The actor said when she told Depp about the potential project, it set off “a week of hell” for her.

“He was calling me a liar, a whore,” she said, also adding that Depp was unhappy that she was in London Fields as he had heard there was a sex scene in it, which Heard says she didn’t shoot.

Heard testified when the couple watched a private screener of London Fields, and Depp saw her body double in the sex scene, Depp punched her across the jaw and slapped her in the face.

“I went flying into this old church furniture,” Heard told the jury, saying that the alleged assault made her think she had a concussion.

She also said that during their fights, Depp would put cigarettes out on himself or flick the at Heard, and Depp would cut himself to draw blood.

Court hears audio of Johnny Depp screaming at Amber Heard that she ‘doesn’t exist’

In audio played for the jury, the couple were heard fighting about recording each other without the other’s permission, and Heard said the former couple had gotten into the habit of doing that as their relationship devolved.

“You’re not a f—ing school teacher!” Depp is heard screaming at Heard in the audio. “You’re ain’t nobody’s mum! You don’t exist!”

Heard said that argument was about whether it was okay for them to record each other without consent, and Depp said it didn’t matter anymore.

Another audio recording captured a conversation between the couple where Heard said she thought her husband would choke on his own vomit.

Johnny Depp allegedly snorted cocaine with a tampon applicator

Heard said her sister taught Depp how to snort cocaine with a tampon applicator in response to a photo presented by Depp’s lawyers to the court, which showed four lines of cocaine next to a tampon applicator on a table.

“When you snort cocaine typically it goes into your nose and then it doesn’t stay on the table,” Vasquez, Depp’s lawyer, said. “There’s residue from that cocaine when your lips and hose touch the table, right?”

“Well,” Heard said. “The tampon applicator next to the driver’s license that you see is a device that I believe my sister had taught him to use in order to put the cocaine in.”

When asked about the photos she took of Depp passed out on multiple occasions, which she sent to a friend alongside the descriptor of “opioid Johnny,” Heard said she was only seeking to help him realise he was addicted.

“I don’t have a picture of him mid-snort,” Heard said when asked if she had photos of Depp snorting cocaine.

Johnny Depp promised Amber Heard he will never look her in the eyes

“You will not see my eyes again,” Depp said in an audio recording, captured in a San Francisco hotel room in 2016, which was played for the court.

“He won’t look at you, right?” Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez asked Heard during cross-examination.

“He can’t,” Heard replied.

“Mr. Depp hasn’t looked at you once during this trial?” Vasquez continued.

“Not that I have noticed,” Heard said, and Vasquez said, “You know why he won’t look at you. He told you you would never see his eyes again.”

When asked by Vasquez if she was the one that abused Depp, Heard said, “I could never hurt Johnny.”

Amber Heard says ‘every word’ of her Washington Pose op-ed is true

Heard defended her 2018 Washington Post op-ed, which is at the centre of this lawsuit as she claims she was “a public figure representing domestic abuse” in it though Depp is not named, saying that her claims were accurate.

“What, if anything, in this op-ed is incorrect?” Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft asked.

“Nothing,” Heard replied. “Every word is true.”

“It’s not about Johnny,” she continued. “The only one who thought it was about Johnny was Johnny. It’s about me. It’s about what happened to me.”

“I have never wanted to be seen as a victim nor have I ever been,” Heard said in court.

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Jason Momoa and Amber Heard in AquamanThe popular franchise stars US actor Johnny Depp as the rum-loving pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. (Supplied)

Amber Heard says her scenes in Aquaman 2 were cut

Heard said the word of her tumultuous relationship with Depp damaged her career, saying she was to receive $US2 million (approx. $2.87 million) for the sequel of Aquaman after making $US1 million (approx. $1.43 million) in the first movie.

She said, however, that many of her scenes were cut from the sequel.

“I was given a script, then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it and depicted my character and another fighting,” Heard said.

It has been previously reported that Heard has less than 10 minutes of screen time in the upcoming film.

Heard said that her most recent role in a small independent film paid her $US65,000 (approx. $93,200).

Pirates of the Caribbean producer says Johnny Depp will not return to franchise ‘at this point’

Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer reminded fans in a recent interview with The Sunday Times that the future of his Disney mega-franchise does not currently include Depp. The actor appeared as Jack Sparrow in all five Pirates of the Caribbean, earning an Oscar nomination for Curse of the Black Pearl. The most recent Pirates movie, Dead Men Tell No Tales, was released in 2017. Bruckheimer said two Pirates scripts are currently in development, but neither include Depp’s former franchise mainstay.

“Yes. We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two Pirates scripts – one with her, one without,” Bruckheimer said when asked about the future of the Pirates franchise. “[Will Depp be back?] Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided.”

On May 2, Depp’s agent Jack Whigham testified in court that the actor was to receive a $US22.5 million (approx. $32.25 million) payday to star in the sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film. Whigham said Disney decided to go “in a different direction” after Heard published an op-ed reviving her domestic abuse allegations.

“After the op-ed it was impossible to get him a studio film,” Whigham said while testifying.

During a cross-examination, Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft said that Depp never had a contract for $US22.5 million for a sixth Pirates movie and stressed the number was never committed to writing. Bredehoft also pointed to prior testimony suggesting that Disney was not likely to cast Depp in the film as early as the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn of 2018, before Heard’s op-ed was published. Whigham testified that while Disney might have been hesitant at that point, Bruckheimer was advocating on Depp’s behalf at the time.

As for Robbie’s Pirates movie, Variety reported in June 2020 that the I, Tonya Oscar nominee was partnering with her Birds of Prey screenwriter Christina Hodson on a new female-fronted Pirates movie. All five films in the franchise have grossed more than $US650 million (approx. $931.8 million) worldwide, with Dead Man’s Chest and On Stranger Tides both topping the $US1 billion mark (approx. $1.434 billion).

Closing arguments in Depp’s defamation case against Heard are scheduled for May 27. The cross-examination of Heard continues on Tuesday in Virginia.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit their website. In an emergency, call 000.