Amber Heard, who appeared at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia on Monday to testify as part of the defamation case brought against her by former husband Johnny Depp, talked about former husband hitting her on their honeymoon to the point that she feared of getting killed.
The high-profile case in Virginia resumed for a fifth week after a pause. In court on Monday, Heard tearfully told jurors that she believed she'd likely "not survive" if she had remained married to Depp. "I was so scared that it was going to end really badly for me," she said. "I really didn't want to leave him. I loved him so much." The Aquaman actor told jurors on Monday that Depp slammed her against a wall and wrapped a shirt around her neck during their 2015 honeymoon on the Orient Express. The pair married in February 2015 and took their honeymoon on the Orient Express train in July of that year after Depp finished filming the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
"He was squeezing my neck against the railway car for what felt like a very long time," she said. She said she recalled thinking he could "kill me". Heard said the Pirates of the Caribbean star would become a "monster" when he was drinking and her efforts to curtail his drug and alcohol use had failed. "The monster had been this thing that was now the norm and not the exception," she said. "The violence was now normal. I remember being scared that he wouldn't mean to do it," she said. Heard also described her marriage as "at times, very loving". She said that it deteriorated over a period of time to the point that tension and violence became normal.
During their increasingly frequent arguments, Amber Heard claimed that Johnny Depp would frequently harm himself. "In fights he would often cut his arms or hold his knife to his chest or draw blood, superficially at first," she said. "He also put cigarettes out on himself." In his own testimony earlier in the trial, Depp said that he never struck Heard and told jurors that she had a "need" for conflict and violence. On Monday, jurors heard a number of audio clips of the former couple arguing. In one clip - which went viral ahead of the trial - Heard can be heard saying she hit Depp. "I was hitting you. I was not punching you," she can be heard saying. "You're not punched." Depp’s lawyers began their cross-examination of Heard later on Monday.
The legal case hinges on a December 2018 opinion piece Amber Heard authored that appeared in the Washington Post. Johnny Depp filed suit against Heard over the op-ed in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Heard did not name Depp in the op-ed but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages. Heard countersued, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered "rampant physical violence and abuse" at his hands.
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