Actor “Aquaman” Amber Heard testified in the multimillion-dollar defamation battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp on Thursday, telling jurors she has been facing harassment and death threats daily since she accused the star. of Hollywood Abuses.
Heard returned to the rostrum at the request of his lawyers before the final arguments on Friday.
Speaking in tears, Heard said she has been “harassed, humiliated, threatened every day” since she accused the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star of physical and sexual abuse.
“People want to kill me and they tell me every day,” Heard said. “People want to put my baby in the microwave.” Heard adopted a girl in July 2021.
Depp, 58, sued Heard in Virginia for $ 50 million and argued that he defamed him when he was called “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” Heard, 36, has filed a $ 100 million lawsuit, saying Depp insulted her when her lawyer said her accusations were a “deception.”
“Johnny’s got enough of my voice,” Heard told the jury. “I have a right to tell my story.” Depp has denied hitting Heard or any woman and said it was she who became violent in their relationship.
“No human being is perfect,” he said Wednesday. “But never in my life have I committed sexual assault, physical abuse.”
The case is expected to go to jury on Friday after each side presents its final arguments.
Heard met Depp in 2011 while filming “The Rum Diary” and the couple married in February 2015. Their divorce materialized about two years later.
At the heart of the legal case is a December 2018 Heard opinion piece in the Washington Post. The article never mentioned Depp by name, but his lawyer told jurors it was clear Heard was referring to him.
Depp, once among Hollywood’s biggest stars, said Heard’s accusations cost him “everything.” A new “Pirates” movie was suspended and Depp was replaced in the “Fantastic Beasts” movie franchise, a spin-off of “Harry Potter.”
Heard’s lawyers have argued that he was telling the truth and that his opinion was protected by free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They said he also lost job opportunities in Hollywood because of Depp’s allegations.
Depp lost a defamation case less than two years ago against The Sun, a British tabloid that called him a “female hitter”. A London High Court judge ruled that he had repeatedly assaulted Heard.
Depp’s lawyers filed the U.S. case in Fairfax County, Virginia, because the Washington Post is printed there. The newspaper is not a defendant.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Mark Porter and Jonathan Oatis)