On the second day of courtroom proceedings in Johnny Depp’s libel suit against British tabloid The Sun, London’s High Court heard about the alleged first bout of violence between the actor and his ex-wife Amber Heard. (The heart of the case is Depp’s battle against the paper’s labeling him as a “wife beater” in a 2018 headline.) The publication’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, recounted to Depp, who took the stand for a second day in a row, Heard’s side of a 2013 incident between the couple. Heard had supposedly made fun of his tattoo, which famously reads “Wino Forever,” an edit from “Winona Forever,” in reference to his ex-girlfriend Winona Ryder.
“I suggest that provoked disappointment firstly in you, and then anger in you,” Wass said, according to the Evening Standard.
Depp said, “I don’t recall any argument about my tattoo.” Wass then said Depp “slapped [Heard] more than once” because she “didn’t react” the first time. Depp said, “That’s patently untrue.”
Wednesday was the second day of a three-week trial the actor initiated against The Sun. Heard has described 14 alleged acts of violence on Depp’s part between 2013 and 2016, and The Sun’s defense is using these allegations to prove the paper’s editors used the term within reason. Depp maintained in his statement to the court that Heard planned during their marriage to depict him as an abuser as a “hoax.” On Tuesday, he admitted to the court that he’s tried “every drug known to man” but that they don’t make him a “monster.”
Depp’s appearance on the stand Wednesday took on a basic, and rarely veered from structure. Wass would describe one of these alleged incidents and then Depp would deny the story.
They touched on one early alleged incident when he supposedly backhanded Heard over an art piece by her ex Tasya van Ree that was hanging on her wall. The next day, per Heard, he held her Teacup Yorkie named Pistol out the window of a moving car and howled, on the way to filming something with Keith Richards, Evening Standard notes. “I can say it is a very enduring image but it’s an utter falsity, it’s fraudulent, it’s not true,” he said, adding, “Hanging a defenseless dog weighing three pounds out of a window is not my idea of fun, although my sense of humor is rather skewed.”
Wass also read off an email that Heard drafted but did not send in 2013 in which she compared him to “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and suggested that his friends and staff enabled Depp’s substance abuse.
“You told her for the first time about the person you have been calling the ‘monster’—your alter ego—the person who took over when you were under the influence of drink and drugs,” Wass said.
Heard wrote at the time, “Half of you I love madly, the other half scares me,” she added. “I can’t take him—I wish I could but I can’t. The problem is I never really know which one I am dealing with until it’s too late.” Heard described in the email draft how he’d deteriorate physically and mentally while under the influence, and suggested that he’d be embarrassed of himself if he could remember what he did.
Depp reportedly countered by saying that Heard also enabled his drinking and drugs and did not try to get him to stop.
Wass pointed out that the email, which Heard never sent, was written at the beginning of their relationship. Depp answered, “I would suggest, ma’am, it appears to me Ms. Heard was building a dossier very early on that appears to be an insurance policy for later.”
When asked if he meant she had been “plotting for three years,” Depp nodded.
“By everything I’ve seen and experienced, yes,” he said.
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