Actor Johnny Depp played down on Monday the violent and insulting text messages he wrote once morest his ex-wife Amber Heard, also accusing her of domestic violence during a new court hearing in his defamation lawsuit.
After showing the court an audio message in which the couple might be heard arguing, attorney Jessica Myers of the star’s defense team asked her client the following question: “What did you answer when Mrs. Heard said, Tell the world, Johnny! Tell them: I’m Johnny Depp, I’m a victim of domestic violence.” ?”.
“Yes, I am,” replied Johnny Depp, concluding his testimony in four days of hearings in Fairfax Court near Washington, DC.
The 58-year-old previously explained that he and Heard, on their part, used to record their fights, which indicates the tension that prevailed between them during their marriage.
In another audio recording shown to the court by Heard’s lawyers, the 36-year-old actress accuses her husband of beating her.
However, Johnny Depp denied that he ever hit Heard or any other woman in his life.
Depp and Heard, who were married for two years, exchange accusations of defamation in this trial, which receives wide media attention and whose facts are reported by American news stations.
“Shut up you fat”
Heard’s lawyers released a recording of Depp shouting to Heard, who was still his wife, “Shut up you fat one.”
In text messages to friends in 2013, Depp wrote, “Let’s burn Amber,” and that he wanted “to sleep with her charred body to make sure she’s dead.”
However, Depp downplayed the violent nature of these messages, saying that there was a “misunderstanding”.
“It’s just abstract and irreverent humor,” the Hollywood star said, justifying his use of it as being inspired by the British surreal humor group Monty Python.
On the eighth day of the trial, Johnny Depp’s legal team sought to downplay these private text messages, which the defense team tried to include as evidence in the file.
Among other indictment evidence, Heard’s attorney, Ben Rothenborn, presented to the jury press material detailing the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s alcohol use.
Depp is suing his ex-wife for defamation and is demanding $50 million in damages over an article published by the Washington Post in 2018 that portrayed Depp as a violent husband.
In this article, the 35-year-old actress did not mention Johnny Depp, 58, whom she married in 2015. But she did address the domestic violence charges she brought once morest him in 2016.
