Published 14:40 IST, July 21st 2020
Amber Heard: 'I was afraid Johnny Depp was going to kill me'
Amber Heard during the Libel Trial mentioned that Johnny Depp threatened to kill her many times and that during an incident she was afraid he might kill her.
- Entertainment News
- 4 min read
Hollywood actor Amber Heard took to the witness stand on the 10th day of the Libel Trial held in London’s High Court. Amber Heard presented a written witness statement to the court, in which she accused her ex-husband Johnny Depp of physical and verbal abuse. In the statement, she also added that he had a very ‘intimidating’ as well as ‘controlling behaviour’. As she took to the stand, she mentioned that there were instances in the relationship where she thought that Johnny Depp would kill her, either intentionally or by losing his calm. However, during the cross-examination, Amber Heard stated that she lost her cool with Johnny Depp but added that it was only in self-defense.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard appear in the court
According to news agency AP, in the first session of her testimony that is expected to last for three days, Amber Heard denied accusations that she was a heavy drug-taker and drinker as well as being controlling and abusive herself. She also described an incident in January 2015 in a hotel room in Tokyo over a prenuptial agreement between herself and Depp and suggested there was an argument about it.
“There was an argument in a hotel room in Tokyo that resulted in Johnny kneeling on my back and hitting me on the back of the head,” she said. In written testimony released as she took to the witness box, Amber Heard said she worried Depp would kill her at various times during their relationship that saw her enduring “punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting, and choking.”
She also said, “some incidents were so severe that I was afraid he was going to kill me, either intentionally or just by losing control and going too far.”
According to the 34-year-old Heard, Depp “explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship” and that he blamed his actions on “a self-created third party” that he referred to as “the monster.” Amber Heard stated that at the beginning of the relationship, Johnny Depp was extremely affectionate, warm as well as charming. However, in her statement, she added that when Johnny Depp puts his affection on someone with all its ‘intensity and darkness’ it is not like anything a person has ever experienced. She elaborated that she used the word 'dark' because Depp he has a ‘violent’ and a ‘dark’ way of speaking.
Amber Heard went on to say that Johnny Depp would talk about their relationship being ‘dead or alive’ and would tell her that the only way out of the relationship was through death. In her statement, the Aquaman actor described her visit to Johnny Depp in Australia in March 2015, as a ‘three-day hostage situation’. She alleged that during those days there were acts of extreme psychological, physical, emotional as well as other forms of violence. She also added she recalls the incidents as being the ‘worst thing that she had to go through’.
Amber Heard added that she was later left with cuts on her arms, nose, and an injured lip. She said that during one of the incidences, Johnny Depp pressed her neck so hard that she couldn’t breathe. She went on to say that she recalls trying to tell him that she couldn’t breathe and that she remembered thinking that he was going to kill her at that moment.
Johnny Depp is suing a publication and its executive editor over an article that called him a ‘wife-beater’. The article also referred to have ‘evidence’ that Johnny Depp attacked Amber Heard. Johnny Depp denies hitting his then-wife, while Amber Heard, 34, has submitted details of 14 occasions during their relationship when the actor has assaulted her. The paper has to prove that the allegations that they made against the actor are substantially true.
(With Inputs from AP)
Updated 14:41 IST, July 21st 2020