Amber Heard says Johnny Depp is still harassing her: He's 'much more powerful than I am, in every way'
Amber Heard testified for the third day on Wednesday amid Johnny Depp’s libel trial against U.K.’s the Sun. Heard answered questions about what she claims was a “three-day hostage situation” in Australia, telling the court Depp launched alcohol bottles at her “like grenades.” The actor has alleged it was Heard who threw bottles in a rage, ultimately severing the tip of his finger. Both Heard, 34, and Depp, 57, deny they were abusive.
In witness statements obtained by Yahoo Entertainment, Heard detailed 14 alleged instances of abuse at the hands of Depp. One of the incidents supposedly occurred in March 2015 when Depp was filming the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie in Australia.
“The best way I can describe what happened in Australia is that it was like a three-day hostage situation,” Heard claimed, alleging the actor “had already been using and had a bag of drugs.”
“I was in a remote house, at least twenty minutes from help; where I could not leave; was trapped and isolated with a violent person suffering from manic depression, bipolar disorder and a pattern of repeated, drug-induced psychosis and violence, who was on a multiple day drug and alcohol binge. Over the course of those three days, there were extreme acts of psychological, physical, emotional and other forms of violence. It is the worst thing I have ever been through. I was left with an injured lip and nose and cuts on my arms,” Heard alleged in the document. (Depp has no known mental illness and Yahoo Entertainment can not verify the actress’s claims.)
Heard expanded on that in London’s High Court on Wednesday, explaining a fight erupted over the actor’s drinking. (Depp previously claimed the two argued when he asked her to sign a postnuptial agreement, which she denied.)
“He had given up the drinking for a while. It was on a list of: if this happens, I leave. He was taunting me to take [the bottle] and would revoke it when I reached,” Heard said, according to the Guardian. She explained that when Depp was sober he’d usually be grateful she saved his life “by standing up to him about the booze,” so she assumed that would happen again.
“I got the bottle a second time and I smashed it on the floor between Johnny and me. I think it snapped something in him. He started picking up bottles and was using them like grenades or bombs, throwing them one after the other in my direction,” Heard told the court.
“I felt glass breaking behind me. I retreated into the bar and he didn’t stop. I was too scared to look behind me. I felt glass hitting my arms. He threw all the bottles that were in reach except one, which was a celebratory magnum-size bottle of wine. There had been 30 or so bottles on the bar,” she continued.
Depp’s attorney, Eleanor Laws, asked the actress if she was the one who threw alcohol bottles, as the actor has alleged. Heard denied throwing bottles and also denied the actor’s claim she burnt a cigarette out on his cheek.
“No. Johnny [burned his cheek] right in front of me. He often did things like that,” Heard stated.
“You would get yourself into rages on some occasions,” Laws asked.
“Sometimes I would get angry but not to the extent of throwing something offensively,” Heard replied. “Sometimes I get angry and lose my cool, yes.”
Heard claimed that the only times she threw things at Depp was to “escape Johnny when he was beating me up.”
The Aquaman star wasn’t the only key witness called on Wednesday.
Heard’s makeup artist and friend, Mélanie Inglessis, testified that she had to conceal Heard’s bruises, ripped out hair and a cut lip ahead of the actress’s appearance on the Late Late Show with James Corden in 2015 following an alleged argument with Depp. Inglessis did not want to testify for fear that her career in Hollywood would suffer but was compelled to give evidence as her motion was denied in June.
In Heard’s witness statement, the actress described the Dec. 2015 incident as “one of the worst and most violent nights of our relationship.” The pair got into an argument at their Los Angeles penthouse where Heard alleged Depp “grabbed me by my throat, pushed me to the floor, and hit me in the back of the head. He grabbed my hair, slapped me in the face, and screamed and swore at me, saying that he was going to kill me. He was dragging me all over the carpet.” She claimed he pushed her face into the mattress “smothering me and pulling out more hair. I was suffocating.”
Inglessis testified Heard told her about the alleged fight when the actress called her to come to the penthouse, per the Guardian. When she arrived, Inglessis said there were broken picture frames, glass on the floor and words written in gold paint on a table. Inglessis claimed Heard was “upset, furious with a lot of emotion and she was quite distressed.”
Inglessis came back the following day to get Heard ready for an appearance on Cordon’s show. “There was a cut or scab on [Heard’s] lip,” she said. “She had minimal discoloration on the corners of her eyes by her nose.”
She added: “I used concealer to try and conceal some of the bruises … Amber’s signature lip color was red, I said we had no other choice [than to use it] to cover up the injury on her lip.”
When asked about the bruises, Inglessis replied, “To my recollection they were not that dark or inflamed yet. I don’t remember having trouble covering them.”
The court was shown video from Heard’s TV appearance in which no injuries were visible. Depp’s attorney also pointed to one of their witnesses, stylist Samantha McMillen, who saw Heard that day with no makeup on and testified she saw “no visible” injuries. McMillen said last week she could “see clearly” that Heard had no marks, cuts or bruises one day after the alleged violent fight.
Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, owner of the Sun, and the tabloid’s executive editor, Dan Wooten, over a 2018 article that called the actor a “wife-beater.” Depp has repeatedly denied Heard’s claims that she was physically and verbally abused during their five-year relationship, insisting he was the one abused. Although the proceedings in the U.K. are not against Heard personally, she believes this is another way Depp is continuing to harass her despite the pair no longer being together.
“I didn’t file this case. Since I filed for divorce, all I have wanted to do is move on. I obtained a restraining order from a judge in 2016 to protect myself and then settled our divorce on terms which meant the details of our relationship — including the abuse I suffered — would not be discussed in public, or so I thought,” Heard said in her fourth written witness statement.
“Since then, I have continued to want nothing more than to be left alone. I find myself saying the same thing today that I was saying in 2016 when I got that restraining order: I just want him to leave me alone. It is Johnny who started giving public interviews claiming I lied and it is Johnny who brought these proceedings,” the actress continued. “Four years later, I am still having to participate in costly litigation and give public testimony about some of the most upsetting and painful events in my life.”
Heard accused Depp and his lawyers of trying to smear her in the press ahead of the trial “and embarrass and harass me and the people around me, including potential witnesses.”
“This campaign has affected my professional life, my personal life and my well-being,” Heard stated. She noted the “online petitions calling for me to be removed from any future sequel to Aquaman and from my association with L’Oreal.” The actress said she’s been the target of “online abuse on social media.”
“It has been extremely upsetting. Johnny is so much more powerful than I am, in every way: physically, financially, and professionally. By leaving him I escaped the physical abuse, but for the past four years he has used his power and resources to continue the harassment and abuse through the various legal proceedings he has dragged me into and the publicity campaign his team has run alongside those proceedings.”
Depp’s libel trial in the U.K. is expected to conclude this week. However, he and Heard are entangled in another lawsuit in the U.S. as he sued the actress for $50 million for defamation stemming from her abuse claims.
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