The Ten Biggest Moments from the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Trial

Amber Heard gave two days of testimony this week in the Johnny Depp lawsuit for libel against her. After several other witnesses testified earlier this month, including Johnny Depp, who provided four days of evidence last month, we’ve now hit the half way point and the trial is on a break this week.

Johnny Depp is suing Heard for defamation, claiming that she falsely branded him a domestic abuser and damaged his flourishing film profession. The lawsuit focuses on a 2018 op-ed written by Heard in the Washington Post in which she mentioned enduring abuse without explicitly naming Depp.

Heard claimed on the stand that Depp assaulted and abused her frequently, with her testimony becoming increasingly explicit. She also discussed how they first met and how their relationship progressed. These are the ten biggest moments from the Johnny Depp and Amber heard trial.

1. Amber Heard recalled everything about her first encounter with Johnny Depp, describing it as “unusual and remarkable”

Heard claimed she’d auditioned for a film Depp was producing, and when she showed up to his office, she thought it would be an opportunity to audition for him, but instead it became a lengthy meeting during which they bonded over books, music, and poetry.

She said it was strange because while she wasn’t a “fan” of Depp, she recognized who he was. He’s one of the most well-known actors on the planet. “So, it was already a weird thing to go and get called in his office. I’m a no-name actor,” she said. “I was 22, I think. I thought it was unusual. It was weird because he was twice my age and world-famous actor and here we are getting along about obscure books and old blues. I thought it was remarkable. I thought it was usual and remarkable. I left there feeling like, wow.”

2. A photograph of a bruise on Heard’s arm that she said was caused by Depp during a past physical altercation was shown to the court.

The actress said that Depp had slapped her, adding that when she walked away “that made things worse.” A photo of a bruise on Heard’s arm was displayed in court, and she described the incident that apparently caused it, claiming Depp smacked her.

“We got into a shouting match. And he kind of did this thing with his body where I could tell he was going to hit me again,” she said.

Heard recalled that she picked up a vase and hurled it in Depp’s direction. “And I actually managed to get away before he got me. He grabbed me by the arm and he kind of held me on the floor screaming at me. I don’t remember how many times he hit me in the face, but I remember being on the floor of my apartment and I’m just — I remember thinking how could this happen to me again?” she said.

3. He was, according to Heard, “the love of her life” – yet she also called him “this other thing” that was “awful”

“And that other thing was awful, awful thing that would come out and take over and it was you couldn’t see the Johnny I loved underneath it,” Heard said.

She said Depp would pass out in his own vomit, lose control of his body, and have others clean up after him. “I mean this man lost control of his bowels and I cleaned up after him, his security cleaned up after him, changed his pants in front of me he would pass out in his own sick,” she said.

Heard added Depp would “get clean and sober” and then would go back to making her feel loved again. Heard contemplated leaving Depp, but couldn’t, “and he expressed to me so many times when he was in that period of getting clean and sober he would tell me, ‘You saved my life. Baby girl, you saved my life,'” she said.

4. Heard claimed that Depp had threatened to kill her

Heard alleged that there was a fight on a family trip on a yacht, when Depp felt she had insulted him in front of his kids by calling him “a drunk.” – and it led to a physical altercation, and Depp saying he could “f***ing kill” her.

Heard said she had not discussed her father’s drinking with his daughter, Lily Rose. Still, he accused her of doing so and became enraged

“So, I was trying to tell him, I was trying to comfort her, I was trying to protect you. He basically was accusing me of doing this thing and making them aware that he was drinking again. And he slams me up against the side wall of the bedroom…slams me up by my neck and holds me there for a second and tells me that he could f***ing kill me,” Heard said.

According to her statement, Depp called her an embarrassment, which was more damaging than the threat. “I’m very, very, very much in love with this whole family now, and he’s saying I’m an embarrassment to him and that somehow stuck in me more than the ‘I can f***ing kill you,'” she said. “It just sounded like hyperbole, sounded like something he was just saying. But the names he was calling me and pushing me up against the wall by my neck. It hurt hurt. It hurt my feelings. It hurt.”

5. When Depp thought Heard was hiding his drugs, Heard claimed Depp conducted a “cavity search” on her.

Heard described an instance in which Depp ripped off her clothing and conducted a “cavity search” of her body, seeming to find no pleasure in the tale. She claims he was looking for his cocaine.

“I was wondering how I, somebody who didn’t do cocaine and was against it – that was in and of itself causing problems in our relationship – how could I hide, why would I hide his drugs from him?” she said. “Like, he was insinuating that I was doing it or something? It made no sense. And he was telling me, we’re going to conduct a cavity search. Like, just shoved his fingers inside me. I just – I just stood there staring at this light. I just stood there, while he did that.”

6. She went on to explain how they met and fell in love

Heard described romantic moments with Depp at the beginning of their relationship. “I remember he took the foil off of this bottle and put it on my ring finger,” she said. “And I had only been with him days, maybe it was weeks at the time, but it just felt very intense.”

When they first met, the couple were “hiding these places around the world,” staying at Depp’s homes. She said it was a “little bubble of secrecy.”

“We had this beautiful, in less than a week probably, a trip to the Bahamas on this private island with sandy beaches, it is a scene that I had never experienced anything like that,” she said.

She called Depp generous – “overly generous at times.”

“I am talking about these extravagant trips or these gestures – it was a lot,” she said of her ex-husband. “He did that a lot with my friends. I rely heavily on my friends and had a very strong support network with them and he really showered them with generosity and love and light. Invited them to come to these exotic places with food and was just incredibly incredibly generous.”

7. Heard said that her sister was involved in a physical altercation with Depp

Amber Heard claims she was the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of Johnny Depp. According to the actress, her younger sister, Whitney, got involved in a physical altercation with him, putting herself “in the line of fire.”

“Her back was to the staircase, and Johnny swings at her. And I just see my little sister with her back, her back to the staircase, and Johnny swings at her and I don’t even wait,” Heard testified.

“[I] Don’t even wait for any other help. I don’t hesitate, I don’t wait, I just in my head instantly think of Kate Moss and the stairs, and I just swung in him.” Heard was apparently referencing a claim that Depp had pushed Moss, who he once dated, down the stairs.

“In all of my relationship to date with Johnny, I hadn’t landed a blow. And for the first time, I hit him. Like actually hit him, square in the face,” she claimed.

8. Several accusations of abuse have been leveled by Heard

According to Heard, Depp assaulted her on numerous occasions – some of which became rather gruesome. He once hit the back of her head, over and over, screaming “I f***ing hate you” over and over again.

Heard said she went to the closet, but Depp grabbed her again and continued to hit her head and wrestle with her on the ground.. “I mean, it felt to me I didn’t even have a fair shot because I wasn’t even really I wasn’t facing him or looking at him I was walking away from him. Or else, I would’ve at this point — I would’ve tried to defend myself more, but I didn’t,” she said.

“He’s sounded like he was almost crying or something and his voice was different. He sounded differently,” she said.

Heard also put on a dramatic show in court, claiming Depp assaulted her while they were in Tokyo before getting married. “I don’t remember what I said to him but I said something snotty to him that provoked him and when I walked into the hallway he grabbed me by the arm and slammed me up against the hallway wall.

She claimed Depp hit her in the face and kicked her in the back on a flight, while others on board did nothing. “No one said anything, no one did anything it was like you could hear a pin drop on that plane. You feel the tension, but no one did anything,” she said. “And I just remember feeling so embarrassed. I felt so embarrassed that he could kick me to the ground in front of people.”

She was embarrassed, and didn’t know what to do. “I got up and I just I walked to the front of the plane. I just sat down and I just looked out of the window,” she said.

9. Heard discussed how Depp proposed to her, but without a ring.

While Depp’s plan to Heard was traditional and “sweet,” he did not have a wedding ring at the time. She said he “got down on one knee and said ‘I want you to be my girl, be my girl forever, my woman, my girl. I want you to be the rest of my life. Say yes to me.'”

Heard said that she looked into his eyes and saw her future before her., and “blind hope.” “I thought if we were married then this is real this is isn’t a thing of – this isn’t chaotic, this will change, you know. I just had so much hope in that moment,” she said.

His not having a ring intrigued her. “In my experience, Johnny can be very impulsive,” she explained.

She also stated that she didn’t immediately tell anyone because she wasn’t sure if Depp was being genuine. “And then he brought my dad out to London with my best friends and my dad told me, ‘You know, Johnny has asked me permission for your hand in marriage,’ and I felt like the luckiest woman in the world,” Heard said.

10. Depp allegedly said to Heard that the only way out of their marriage was death.

Heard was talking about how she had proposed a pre-nuptial agreement to Johnny Depp.. “He said, ‘If you ever brought one up to me or if ever saw one got my hands on it I’d tear it up, any way out of this is death. The only way out of this is death,'” she claimed.

She thought the pre-nup would “eliminate suspicion or doubt and it would make things easier.” But Depp, she said, took it as a sign that she wanted to leave their marriage. “[He said,] ‘Are you already thinking of how you’re getting out of this? Are you already planning to get out of this, you’re already planning on leaving?’ That was around the same time of moving in together conversation. He accused me having one foot out,” Heard testified.

During Depp’s testimony the previous month, he claimed that Heard “went into a tailspin” after hearing about the prospect of a post-nuptial agreement, which his attorneys had given to her. He said he was surprised that “she kept saying, ‘I’m not even in your will. I’m not even in your will,'” he alleged.

“I thought that was an odd thing to say. Especially since I don’t think anybody had had time to change wills or anything of that nature,” Depp said. “It felt wrong. And she could not let go of the fact that I was in on this post-nup agreement and that I was trying to trick her. Into essentially getting nothing if something were to happen.”

On Monday, May 16, Amber Heard’s testimony is expected to resume. Johnny Depp’s attorneys have not yet cross-examined her.