Amber Heard testifies against Johnny Depp in Virginia defamation Saga

After sitting in silence inside the frigid Fairfax County, Virginia, courtroom for three weeks as Johnny Depp and those closest to her ex-husband described her as an abusive manipulator, Amber Heard has come out. stand on Wednesday to tell his story.

“I’m here because my ex-husband is suing me over a contract I wrote,” Heard, 36, told Virginia jurors who had to settle a $50 million defamation lawsuit. dollars that Depp filed against her, and also settled at least some of the claims in an objection she filed against him. “I struggle to find words to describe how painful this is.”

“It’s just horrible for me to have to sit here for weeks and relive everything,” she said shortly afterward, before adding: “This is the hardest and most painful thing I’ve ever been through. .”

Testimony given in the fourth week of the civil trial focused on Depp’s allegation that Heard “devastated” his career with a 2018 Washington Post op-ed calls himself a domestic violence survivor. Heard has denied the allegations and insisted that the editorial – which did not name her ex-husband but was published two years after she sought a restraining order against him – was general about her experience. Since then, she has countered Depp with $100 million after at least one of his former lawyers suggested her account was a “hoax.”

Throughout the trial, Depp’s legal team presented 29 witnesses to try to prove that Heard was not only the abuser in the couple’s brief marriage that officially ended in 2017, but It was her choice that destroyed the actor’s agency and expense. give him $40 million in acting opportunities. Depp also used the trial to speak out against “disgusting and disturbing” allegations that he abused Heard, moving jurors through shocking allegations of abuse on her part, including one infamous incident in which he claimed the actress threw a vodka bottle which severed the tip of his finger.

One problem for Depp: His version of events about that brutal episode may have been garbled when he appeared to say on audio played in court that he had cut his own finger. me.

However, when Depp and his team went to great lengths to suggest that Heard essentially undo an innocent man she herself had abused—and legions of online fans mocked her. — direct testimony from Heard provided an opportunity to reset the story after she fired her PR team.

Her attorneys had begun giving their version of events a day earlier with their first witness, a psychologist by profession, who did not consider Heard a patient, but analyzed her to prepares for the trial — and says that Heard showed clear signs of domestic abuse by Depp. The witness also recounted an alleged violent episode in which Heard said Depp kicked her in a fit of jealousy over her work with James Franco.

The jury must decide if Heard acted with “genuine malice” when she wrote Upload fragment – meaning she knew the content was untrue – or the actress published the footage with “reckless disregard” for the truth. Although the actress did not mention Depp in her option, she has long accused her ex-husband of abuse, including an incident where Depp allegedly threw a phone at her that left her with a bruised face.

The duo met on set in 2011 Rum Diary and were married in 2015, before they began divorce proceedings a year later. In November 2020, a London judge found that there was “sufficient evidence” that Depp assaulted Heard repeatedly throughout their marriage, and that she was “frightened for her life”. .”

Depp denied all allegations of abuse in the stands, saying he had “never hit a woman” in his life. “My aim is the truth, because it kills me that the people I’ve talked to, that I’ve met over the years… will think I’m a scammer,” the actor said in the words. his declaration.

The actor also clearly describes himself in court as a survivor of domestic violence. And jurors heard a tape recording where Heard admitted to escalating the argument and even discussing hitting the actor.

Depp said Heard’s abuse included heated arguments that often turned violent, the actress throwing his phone out the window and a strange situation involving feces in the couple’s bed. .

“The only person I have ever abused in my life is myself,” he said.