Amber Heard returned emotionally to the rostrum when Johnny Depp’s defamation suit against her entered its final stretch, reminding jurors that he is “a human being” and saying, “I just want Johnny to leave me alone.”
In her second round of direct evidence in Thursday’s high-profile case, the actress wept as she also told the court that she has not lied about anything she has said about Depp.
After six weeks of numerous testimonies from friends, colleagues, medical experts, and industry workers, Heard was the final witness in the trial. Following his testimony, the jurors were sent home early, ready to hear the final arguments and begin their deliberations on Friday.
“People want to kill me”: Amber Heard’s emotional testimony as it happened
Image: Heard hugs his lawyer Elaine Bredehoft. Image: AP Image: Depp photographed during a pause in the procedure
During his time at the stand, the Aquaman star said he had received “thousands” of death threats since the proceedings began and that the process had been “agonizing, painful and humiliating.”
Depp is suing Heard over a 2018 article he wrote for The Washington Post, which his lawyers say falsely implies that he physically and sexually abused her while they were together. He has flatly denied all allegations and said she was violent in their relationship, not him.
After asking her about the effect of the trial on her, she said, “I am harassed, humiliated, threatened, every day.
“Even just entering this room, sitting here in front of the world with the worst parts of my life, things I’ve experienced, used to humiliate me.
“People want to kill me, they tell me that … they want to put my baby in the microwave, and they tell me.”
Heard said he must “relive the trauma” of Depp’s alleged abuse “every day” and that his close friends and partners must live with “unexpressed rules” about how to act around him when he has panic attacks.
The actress said she has to live with campaigns about her on social media and that during the trial she had faced “humiliation” in front of the camera in the courtroom.
In an apparent reference to Depp, Heard continued: “I’m not sitting in this courtroom laughing, I’m not sitting in this courtroom laughing. I’m not smiling and making deaf jokes. I’m not. That’s horrible. That’s painful and that is humiliating for any human being.
“And maybe it’s easy to forget. I’m a human being. And while Johnny promised me he deserved it and he promised I would, I don’t deserve it. I want to move on.”
“I’m not trying to present myself as a saint”
Heard told the court he had learned to use what has happened to help others.
“I’m not a saint, I’m not trying to present myself as one, as you all know, but I selfishly found relief in … being able to defend others,” he said.
Heard said he receives death threats “periodically, if not daily.” Thousands, he said, since the trial began, and people “mock his testimony.”
Crying, she said, “I just want Johnny to leave me alone. I just want him to leave me alone.”
Heard denies warning TMZ and addresses Kate Moss’ testimony
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2:52 Kate Moss’s testimony in full
Asked what she hopes to claim “once this is over,” the actress told the court, “Protecting the secret I did during the time I did has caught my voice enough. Johnny has taken enough of it. my voice. I have a right. to tell my story … I hope to get my voice back. “
Heard also denied reporting to US entertainment site TMZ about his removal of a restraining order against Depp after his breakup in May 2016, as well as other stories, and was also asked about his testimony about Depp’s ex-girlfriend, supermodel Kate Moss.
He had previously admitted that he had punched Depp on one occasion, saying it was because he had heard a rumor that he had pushed Moss down some stairs when they left in the 1990s, and he thought he was about to do the same. with his sister.
Read more: The story of the relationship of Kate Moss and Johnny Depp
On Wednesday, the notoriously private Moss appeared in court via a video link to say Depp never pushed her down any stairs or was violent, but there was an incident when she fell.
When Heard was told she made the allegation about the Moss rumor, as the model was never expected to test, the actress said she had no expectations in any way. “It didn’t matter … it doesn’t change what I thought at the time we were on the stairs and I thought [Depp] I was going to kill my sister. “
Heard said “a lot of people have come out of the woods to be part of Johnny Depp’s show” while being questioned by the actor’s legal team and accused of qualifying previous witnesses. of “liars.”
The judge issues a warning
Judge Penney Azcarate also warned people in the public gallery not to comment on his testimony and said the court would be penalized if the interruptions continue.
In his second round of questioning on Tuesday, Depp once again denied the “extravagant and outrageous” allegations of abuse made by Mrs Heard and said he had “reluctantly denounced what I have been carrying on my back for six years “.
Other witnesses to testify Thursday were clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Dawn Hughes, who also appeared for a second time after previously testifying that Heard was suffering from PTSD as a result of abuse, and forensic computer expert Julian Ackert.
Ackert testified against testimony yesterday that Heard’s photos of injuries had been through editing software.
Dr. Richard Gilbert, a hand surgeon, also testified as an expert witness on Depp’s severed finger, an injury he suffered during his famous trip to Australia in 2015 and from Heart. He told the court that after analyzing the X-rays and medical records, he believed that Depp’s version of events – that Heard threw a bottle of vodka at him, which broke and caused the wound – is the probable story. real.
Depp v Heard: the background
The former couple began dating after meeting on the set of the 2011 film The Rum Diary and were married in Los Angeles in February 2015. They separated in May 2016, and Heard presented a removal order.
Depp is suing Heard for $ 50 million (£ 38.2 million) in Fairfax County Circuit Court, Virginia, for the 2018 first-person article in which she refers to herself as “a figure representing domestic abuse. “
Read more: The UK trial against The Sun: What Happened? Why are Depp and Heard back in court?
Heartd’s column does not mention Depp by name, but argues that it is an example of “defamation by implication” because some parts of the piece clearly refer to allegations of abuse he made in 2016.
Heard has issued a $ 100 million (£ 76.4 million) counterclaim.
Closing arguments will take place on Friday before the jury is sent to deliberate.