Amber Heard Details Alleged Johnny Depp Abuse In Ongoing Trial

Content warning: references to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse

Amber Heard finally took to the stand in a Virginia court on Wednesday (May 4) to testify as part of the ongoing defamation suit brought against her by ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Heard and Depp married in 2016, but divorced a year later. Heard repeatedly alleged domestic abuse, which ultimately morphed into a heated legal battle that has been going for years now.

Depp previously lost a libel case in the UK against The Sun newspaper for referring to him as a wife beater. However, a Virginia judge ruled in August last year that he would be allowed to move ahead with its $50 million defamation suit against Heard over a 2018 op-ed in which she detailed her experience of domestic abuse. Although Depp was never mentioned by name, he argues the feature has caused his career and reputation irreparable damage.

The trial finally began in late April, and has been going on for coming up to four weeks now. In that time, we've mostly heard Depp's account of the relationship, although testimonies so far have detailed troubling accusations of physical and emotional abuse from both sides.

Yesterday, Heard took to the stand to give her version of events and outline the abuse she allegedly suffered during her 15-month marriage to Depp. As mentioned at the top of the article, please be aware that some readers may find the following content extremely distressing.

“I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is … this is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything, to hear people that I knew, some well, some not, my ex-husband with whom I shared a life, speak about our lives in the way they have,” Heard said. “This has been one of the most painful and difficult things I’ve ever gone through."

The actor recalled the first time Depp allegedly struck her (via CourtTV). She claims it was because she laughed at his 'Wino Forever' tattoo.

"I will never forget it, it changed my life. I laughed, I thought he was joking and he slapped me across the face," she said. 

"I laughed, because I didn’t know what else to do. You think it’s funny, bitch? He slapped me again, it was clear it wasn’t a joke. I didn’t move or freak out ..I just stared at him. And he slaps me one more time, hard. I’m all of a sudden realizing that the worst thing that could happen to me happened."

Heard went on to detail an alleged sexual assault in 2013, which she described as a "cavity search".

She said: "He’s grabbing my breast, he’s touching my thighs, he rips my underwear off and proceeds to do a cavity search… he shoves his fingers inside me. I just stood there looking at the light… I didn’t say stop or anything."

Heard also testified that Depp once threatened to kill her while sailing on his yacht in the Bahamas.

“He slams me up by my neck and holds me there for a second and tells me that he could fucking kill me and that I was an embarrassment,” she said.

Depp's initial testimonies appeared to have won the vast majority of the public over to his side. As just one example, a petition to have Amber Heard removed from Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom has received millions of signatures since the trial started.

While the court of public opinion of course has no say in the outcome of the trial, we'll have to see how Heard's account of the relationship changes things.