Speaking in his second day of testimony the US double defamation trial Johnny Depp described how he experienced a “nervous breakdown” after his finger was severed in an altercation with ex-wife Amber Heard.
Heard had flown from Los Angeles in March 2015 to visit Depp at a rented house in Australia while he was filming Pirates Of The Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Depp told a court in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Wednesday (April 20) that they got into an argument over his suggestion they sign a post-nuptial agreement.
Heard, he said, became “irate, she was possessed” after talking to a lawyer about the document, which determines how parties will divide their money and possessions in the event of a divorce.
Depp said he locked himself away in bathrooms and bedrooms in the “labyrinth” home and when he emerged to get a drink of vodka she threw a bottle at him, then a second one which hit his finger. Heard has claimed Depp hurt his own finger.
He said at first he did not feel pain. “I felt heat and I felt as if something were dripping down my hand and then I looked down and realised that the tip of my finger had been severed. I was looking directly at my bones sticking out and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger.”
He added later, “I started to write… in my own blood on the walls little reminders from out past that essentially represented lies that she had told me and lies that I had caught her in and amongst all the madness I would again hide in a bathroom or whatever… All the bones were crushed and it looked like Vesuvius.”
Depp went to a hospital but told medics he smashed his finger in accordion doors in order to keep the peace with Heard. He subsequently wore a bandage on the production of Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Later on Wednesday Depp was cross-examined by Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn who said Depp’s role in a sixth Pirates Of The Caribbean instalment was already under threat prior to a December 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post written by Heard which Depp claimed was a factor in him losing the role.
Rottenborn cited a report in The Daily Mail from October 2018 that said Depp no longer had the role of Jack Sparrow. Depp replied that he was not aware of the Mail report but that it did not surprise him. “Two years had gone by of constant worldwide talk about me being this wife beater,” he said. ”So I’m sure that Disney was trying to cut ties to be safe. The #MeToo movement was in full swing at that point.”
Depp is suing Heard for $50m in damages and claims her 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post about domestic abuse was about him – Heard did not name Depp in the article – and damaged his reputation and career, leading to the loss of roles in the Pirates Of The Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts franchises.
Heard is counter-suing Depp in a $100m filing and argues her former husband has tried to smear her and additionally claims her article is fair and is protected under the First Amendment as it in the public interest. She has alleged Depp hit her, choked her and in addition sexually assaulted her in Australia in 2015. Depp has denied any abuse and told the trail on Tuesday that he has never hit Heard or any woman in his life.
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