Depp vs Heard Verdict: Depp first filed his defamation lawsuit against Heard in March 2019, in response to an op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post in December 2018 about being the victim of domestic violence. The article itself did not mention Depp by name, however, their contentious 2016 divorce had been in the news over the previous two years.
In the suit, Depp claims that Heard’s allegations of abuse against him were an “elaborate hoax.” Depp alleges the op-ed caused damage to his career. He says he was dropped from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise four days after the op-ed was published.
Though Heard never mentioned Depp by name in the article, the suit claims that the piece “depends on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her.” While Depp originally filed in 2019, the subsequent coronavirus pandemic pushed the case back significantly.
Today won't be an easy day. It won't be pleasant. It will be a grind, maintaining it's foothold in the deep trenches & muck of discomfort. Johnny Depp will be approached by Amber Heard's team with the aggression, doubt & gaslighting she demonstrated on him for years. Stay strong.
— Brian McPherson (@ThatBrianFella) April 21, 2022
Johnny Depp admits partying with Marilyn Manson
Actor Johnny Depp said he’d taken pills and cocaine with rocker Marilyn Manson on numerous occasions.
“I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so he would stop talking so much,” Depp testified, eliciting chuckles from the Virginia courtroom, where he is suing ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation.
Rottenborn repeatedly challenged Depp during cross-examination, using the actor’s contradictory testimony from his London libel case against “The Sun” newspaper.
He sued the paper for branding him a wife beater and lost.
Actor Johnny Depp called then-wife Amber Heard a ‘filthy w—e’
Actor Johnny Depp used shocking language to discuss Amber Heard.
“I never ever want to lay eyes on that filthy w—e, Amber ,” read Heard’s lawyer Ben Rottenborn from an April 19, 2015, text during cross-examination. “Did I read that right?”
“Yes, you did,” replied Depp, snidely.
“When you called Amber that filthy w—e, she was your wife at the time?” asked Rottenborn.
“Correct,” replied the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star.
In another text exchange, Depp called Heard an “idiot cow,” a “worthless hooker” and wrote “I’ll smack the ugly c— around before I let her in, don’t worry.”
Johnny Depp’s dad slugged him once, actor says on cross-examination
Amber Heard’s lawyer pressed Johnny Depp Thursday on whether his dad had ever abused him.
“Walls weren’t the only things your father punched,” Ben Rottenborn said. “He punched you in the face once and knocked you down?”
Depp didn’t mention the incident during his lengthy direct when he discussed his physically and emotionally abusive mother and said his relationship with Heard had the same dynamic.
“Yes, when I was 15-years-old,” Depp replied. “He had asked me to take the dog for a walk or something or take out the garbage or something meaningless. I just said, no, and he gave me a quick shot. Pretty hefty. Yeah, it rattled my head, it rattled the cage.”
Johnny Depp grilled during cross-examination
One of Amber Heard’s defense lawyers, Ben Rottenborn, pressed Johnny Depp on why he never fought his ex-wife’s initial domestic violence allegations.
“I was advised by my attorney not to fight,” he replied. Depp is suing Heard for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post calling herself a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
But the actress had publicly accused him of assault two years earlier, filing for a temporary restraining order in May of 2016.
A few months later, Rottenborn pointed out, Depp signed a document as part of his divorce settlement stating that, “neither party has made false accusations for financial gain.”
The “Black Mass” star has alleged that Heard’s op-ed cost him a role in the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. But Rottenborn presented a news article reporting that Disney had already dropped Depp for the part.
The cross-examination of Depp continues Thursday and will mark his third day on the stand.
Johnny Depp says he’s lost ‘nothing less than everything’
Johnny Depp testified Wednesday that the fallout from Amber Heard’s 2018 op-ed branding him an abuser was swift.
The actor is suing his ex-wife over the piece that doesn’t name him directly but identifies herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
“I don’t think it took Disney very long, maybe a couple of days, to announce that I had been removed from the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films franchise,” he said. “I lost nothing less than everything.”
But, he said, the real damage began when she made the initial accusations.
“I will live with that for the rest of my life because of the allegations,” he told the jury. It was such a big, high profile case that I lost then no matter the outcome of this trial.”
Johnny Depp tells jurors about Amber Heard’s $7m divorce settlement
Johnny Depp testified Wednesday that he agreed to payout a $7 million divorce settlement to Amber Heard in January 2017.
He said his lawyers hashed out the agreement more than seven months after Heard publicly filed for divorce and for a temporary restraining order against the actor on his daughter’s birthday.
amber heard denied johnny depp his meds as he was going into withdrawal during his detox. he was begging and crying for her to give it to him but she wouldn’t. “that was about the lowest point in my life i’ve ever felt as a human being” #justiceforjohnnydepp pic.twitter.com/EWVxfyVuvN
— b ✧⡱ (@j0hnnycdpp) April 20, 2022
Heard later announced that she would donate the entire payout to two charities, so Depp sent subsequent payments he owed her directly to the named not for profits.
“Ms. Heard was very, very angry that I had made those first payments, and she went into kind of a tirade about how I should be charged double the $7 million, I should be charged $14 million,” he said.
Johnny Depp’s Sister Is the First to Testify
The actor’s sister — and personal manager — Christi Dembrowski was the first person to take the stand to refute Heard’s claims that Depp was abusive. According to Dembrowski, she witnessed Depp being physically abused and hurt by their mother, and claimed that Depp swore to never perpetrate that sort of violence. She also claimed that she’d not seen a reason to believe that Depp struggled with drugs or alcohol abuse.
However, on cross-examination, Dembrowski struggled to reconcile her defense of Depp’s mental health with text messages she sent in which she expressed concern over his use of pain pills. One text, sent to Heard, read, “I love him so much but he needs help.” Dembrowski claimed that was specifically in connection to his dependence on pain medication.
Dembrowski also claimed that Heard once called Depp, while married, “an old, fat man,” Dembrowski claims that Heard got mad when Depp was offered advertising work for Dior, and allegedly told the actor, “They’re about class and style and you don’t have style.”
