Amber Heard’s testimony from a 471-page deposition transcript from August 2016 reveals more details of the abuse she alleges Johnny Depp put her through during their 23-month marriage. Documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter show Heard describing a fight between the couple in a penthouse in Los Angeles on May 21, 2016, when Heard’s friends called the police on Depp. “Johnny and I refer to his other personality, the part of him that is present when he beats me up — we call that the monster and have called [that] the monster for many years,†Heard recounted during a deposition. “I was petrified of the monster.â€
Heard alleges that Depp threw her phone at her “as hard as he could,†grabbed her by her hair, and “broke a lot of glass things that left glass on the floor.†LAPD officers arrived on the scene but didn’t make an arrest; Heard says Depp’s security convinced him to leave. The officers testified that they did not see any marks or bruises on Heard’s face, and that they had no probable cause.
Heard’s testimony and abuse allegations are the subject of renewed interest as Depp sues the U.K. tabloid The Sun, alleging that a story calling him a “wife-beater†was defamatory. (“How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film after assault claim?†an April 2018 headline reads.) Though both Heard and Depp agreed to not discuss their separation as part of their divorce, Depp repeatedly denied the assault allegations as he promoted Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, suggesting to British GQ that Heard lied about the abuse: “To harm someone you love?†he said. “As a kind of bully? No, it didn’t, it couldn’t even sound like me.â€
A hearing for Depp’s lawsuit against The Sun is scheduled for February.