Amber Heard could be heard admitting to punching Johnny Depp in a recording played in court.
Ms Heard and Mr Depp discussed the physical altercation on the recording, during which she said she punched Mr Depp but did not “cheat” on him. She also told Depp to “grow up”, calling him “baby”. The recording was played in court on Wednesday.
The defamation trial between Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard began on Monday, April 11, in Fairfax, Virginia, following Mr. Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr. Depp argues that she defamed in a December 2018 op-ed published on washington post titled “I spoke out against sexual violence — and faced the wrath of our culture. That has to change.”
“You told me to do it. You told me ‘go do that,'” Heard said on the recording.
“You punched me in the damn thing,” Depp said.
“You figured it all out,” Mrs. Heard replied. By the way, I didn’t punch you.
“I’m sorry I didn’t hit you in the face with a proper slap,” he added. “I was hitting you, I wasn’t hitting you. You are not beaten.”
“Don’t tell me how it feels to get punched,” Depp said.
Mrs Heard told Mr Depp “you know you’ve been in a lot of fights, you’ve been around for a long time.”
“They didn’t punch you, they hit you,” he added.
“I’m sorry. I hit you like that, but I didn’t punch you. I didn’t let you down. I was hitting you. I don’t know what my actual hand movement was. But you’re okay. I didn’t hurt you,” Heard said.
“What am I supposed to do? Do this? I’m not sitting here complaining about it, am I? You are, that’s the difference between you and me. You’re a fucking baby,” he added.
As Mr. Depp begins to reply, Ms. Heard can be heard raising her voice and saying “you’re a baby, grow up, Johnny.”
Depp asked him if he had started a “physical fight”.
“I started a physical fight,” Heard said.
“Yeah you did, so I had to get out of there,” Depp replied.
“You did the right thing. Big deal. You know what? You’re admirable,” Heard said in a tone that Depp described in court as sarcastic.
A photo of Johnny Depp shows the actor after receiving what he called a ’round hit’ by Amber Heard
(court evidence)
A photo of Depp was shown in court after he received what he called a “round punch” from Heard. The photo was dated March 2015. Depp said security guard Sean Bett took the photo.
In her 2018 opinion piece, Ms. Heard wrote in part that “like many women, she had been sexually harassed and assaulted when she was of college age. But I kept quiet, I did not expect to file complaints to do justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim.”
“Then two years ago I became a public figure representing domestic abuse and felt the full force of our culture’s anger at women speaking out,” she added at the time.
While Mr. Depp is not mentioned in the article, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr. Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”. Mr. Depp is seeking compensation of “not less than $50 million”.
Ms. Heard has filed a $100 million counterclaim against Mr. Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.