Johnny Depp continues to deny using any violence on his ex-wife Amber Heard on day 4 of his trial. On Monday (April 25) he calmly told jurors that he filed a libel suit against her as it was his best chance to protect his reputation.
Depp is suing Amber Heard for a 2018 op-ed piece in the Washington Post in which she refers to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”.
During the trial on Monday, the jury heard recordings where Depp threatened that violence could ensue if their arguments escalated.
“The next move, if I don’t walk away… it’s going to be a bloodbath, like it was on the island,” Depp says on the recording.
In other clips, Depp can be heard loudly shouting vulgarities at his wife, degrading her and yelling, “You stupid f…” at her.
Heard looking like she was holding back tears as Depp visibly recoiled upon hearing the recordings.
Her op-ed does not mention Johnny Depp’s name, however, he argues that it was still defamation because parts of the piece clearly refer to allegations of abuse she made in 2016 when she filed for divorce and obtained a temporary restraining order.
The audio clips comprised part of the cross-examination in his trial that began last week. Heard’s lawyers focused heavily on Depp’s drinking, drug use and volatile conversations with Heard during their relationship.
Despite the fact that the libel lawsuit is centred on the issue of defamation, most of the trial has in fact focused on the painful details of the couple’s marriage. Heard’s lawyers allege that Depp physically and sexually abused her, and his denials lack merit because he was often drunk and high to the point of blacking out.
Depp said that his use of coarse language was often figurative. He also denied cutting off his own finger during a fight with Heard, even though he told people as much at the time. He now claims that the finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him.
“Why would I start lopping off digits in my 50’s?”. He flashed his right hand to the jury saying, “I can’t take responsibility for what I now call Little Richard, my chopped finger.”
The jury also witnessed dozens of text messages written by Depp to his friends regarding his drinking, drug use and interactions with his then-wife, as well as his notes of remorse to Heard and her father.
He called the drug accusations against him “grossly embellished’ though he acknowledged taking many drugs.
According to Depp the Post article resulted in him losing his reputation unfairly and making him a Hollywood outcast. It also cost him his role in the highly profitable “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.
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