Actress Amber Heard took the stand in London’s High Court Tuesday to deny allegations that she cheated on husband Johnny Depp and fabricated injuries to make it look like he abused her.
The divorced couple have seen their often fractious relationship go under the microscope as Depp attempts to prove in a libel case against The Sun that he is not the “wife beater” they dubbed him, and The Sun attempts to prove that he did abuse Heard on 14 separate occasions.
The Aquaman star brought a previously unseen photo showing bruises on her right cheek, and said on the stand that Depp threw a cellphone at her face that evening “like he was a baseball pitcher.”
Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws showed footage of Heard leaving the elevator in their L.A. building in the days following the alleged incident that showed a seemingly unbruised face. The 34-year-old claims she was wearing makeup to hide the bruises.
DENIALS OF CHEATING, FAKING, DEFECATION
She said that her good friend James Franco saw her face himself shortly after asked her “what the f–k” happened to her face after the incident.
Discussing his alleged abuse, Heard said of Depp that she was “petrified of the monster that Johnny could become.”
Testifying about one incident in 2013, when they were staying at a trailer park, she said: “He broke light fixtures, and he broke the frosted glass front of a cabinet, and I think he threw glasses at me. He accused me of being the ‘moral police’ and ‘lesbian camp counselor’ and of hiding his drugs.
However, she admitted that she hit him once: “I did strike Johnny that day in defense of my sister Whitney. He was about to push her down the stairs.”
Heard also responded to Laws’ questions about the now-famous bed defecation; Depp has said that she pooped in their bed as a “prank,” but she blamed their two teacup Yorkshire terriers.
Heard said: “Of course not, that is absolutely disgusting. That is unimaginable to me.”
She also denied the allegation that she cheated on Depp with Elon Musk and Franco, but Laws presented texts in which it appears that Musk offered to protect her, and seemed hurt by her ghosting him: “The offer would stand, even if you never wanted to see me again… anyway, sorry for being an idiot. The radio silence hurts a lot. It only matters because I really like you.”