Johnny Depp will face cross-examination by Amber Heard’s attorneys Thursday after he spent two days testifying in his defamation lawsuit accusing Heard of lying about abuse and assaulting him during their marriage.
Depp took the stand for several hours this week detailing his relationship with Heard, accusing her of throwing things at him and verbally abusing him during their marriage. He characterized his ex-wife as having a “need for conflict, she has a need for violence.”
Depp, the star of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, is suing Heard over an essay she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018, in which she said she had become a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Although the article never mentions Depp by name, his attorneys said it indirectly refers to allegations she made against him during their 2016 divorce.
“When the allegations were rapidly circling the globe, telling people that I was a, a drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women — suddenly in my 50s — it’s over,” Depp said. “You’re done.”
Over two days, Depp painted a picture of Heard as someone who started off as his perfect partner but became hostile through the course of their almost year-and-a-half relationship.
According to Depp’s account, Heard would pick fights and escalate them with demeaning language. He also said she would sometimes “strike out,” whether it was a slap or a shove, or throw something at him.
As evidence, attorneys for Depp presented photos of his injuries from what they alleged were attacks by Heard. Audio clips recorded during their fights were also played.
Heard is alleged to tell Depp in one clip: “I was hitting you. I was not punching you.”
In court filings before the trial, Heard said she hit Depp only in self-defense or in defense of her younger sister, according to The New York Times.
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Heard was granted a protective order in May 2016 after she alleged that Depp hit her in the face with a cellphone. She presented evidence to the court — a photo of a bruise to her face — and claimed he pulled her hair, screamed at her and hit her repeatedly.
“During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny Depp has been verbally and physically abusive to me,” Heard said in a sworn declaration at the time.
She also said she lived in fear of Depp, saying he had a “short fuse” and terrorized her.
Depp testified that his typical tactic in arguments was to remove himself, often by locking himself in a bathroom. He said it was a strategy he learned growing up with an abusive mother.
Depp, who has denied ever having struck Heard, recounted his version of the May 2016 cellphone incident Wednesday.
Depp said the two were in his penthouse a day after he called Heard to tell her that his mother had died and that he wanted to file for divorce.
Heard wanted to speak, Depp said, so he went over to have a discussion and gather his belongings. They had not spoken for nearly a month at that point, he said.
Depp said Heard was laughing at him with a friend on the phone as he gathering his belongings.
“It was a tough couple of days, and I really didn’t feel like I deserved that kind of treatment,” Depp said.
He took the phone, told her friend that Heard was “all yours” and then “flung” it down onto the couch before he walked away to the kitchen, Depp told the court.
Diana Dasrath contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
