“I’ve never hit a woman in my life,” says Johnny Depp while commenting on ex Amber Heard’s defamation case
Johnny Depp said he was “obsessed with the truth” as he took the stand to testify in his US defamation trial against his former wife Amber Heard.
The actor told a Virginia court that Ms Heard was making “disgusting and disturbing” allegations against him and that it was “diabolical” that his children had been exposed to them at school.
Mr Depp is suing the Aquaman star for defamation over a 2018 article she wrote in the Washington Post that his attorneys wrongly say physically and sexually abused her.
“It was a total shock … it just didn’t have to go that way as nothing like this had ever happened,” he told the court on Tuesday.
“[In]the relationship there were arguments and things like that, but I myself never got to the point where I hit Ms. Heard in any way, nor have I ever hit a woman in my life.”
Mr Depp said at the time the allegations had “permeated” the entertainment industry and become “citation, unquoted fact”.
video of the day
“It’s been six years of difficult times, very strange when one day you’re sort of Cinderella and then in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo,” he said
“I didn’t deserve that, neither did my children and the people who believed in me over the years.
“I pride myself on honesty… on truth. Truth is the only thing I’m interested in.
“Lies get you nowhere, and lies build on lies… I’m obsessed with the truth, so today is the first opportunity that I’m able to speak fully on this case.”
The actor, who wore a dark suit and light paisley tie, said the case would be “revealing” for both him and Ms Heard.
“It never had to go in that direction,” he said.
“I can’t say I’m embarrassed because I know I’m doing the right thing.”
Mr Depp said he initially thought his relationship with Ms Heard was “too good to be true” but noticed things that “could be a bit of a dilemma at some point”.
“In the beginning of my relationship with Ms. Heard, as far as I can remember, it was like it was too good to be true,” he said.
“She was thoughtful, she was loving, she was smart, she was kind, she was funny, she was understanding and we had a lot of things in common.
“For that year or a half it was amazing, there were a few things that stuck in my mind that I realized I thought might be a bit of a dilemma at some point.”
He told the court that Ms Heard had developed a “routine” when he came home from work to give him a glass of wine and take off his boots and that she was “visibly shaken” and upset when he did once disturbed.
“Once you notice something like that, you notice other little tidbits and things that come out,” he said.
Actress Amber Heard is attending a court hearing at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse as the defamation case brought against her by her ex-husband Johnny Depp continues. Image: Reuters
“Then within a year or a year and a half she had almost become a different person.”
The actor also opened up about the emotional and physical abuse he suffered from his mother and father during his own childhood.
“I was very disappointed in him because I was beginning to think his exit was serpentine, cowardly.
“When he said goodbye to me that morning as he left for work, I said ‘goodbye pop,’ and that was it until I found out the truth.”
In sometimes long and rambling responses to questions, Mr Depp said his experiences taught him “one of the best lessons I’ve ever learned in my life”.
“Based on my experiences as a kid and what I had seen and experienced, I knew exactly how to raise kids…which meant doing the opposite of what they were doing,” he said.
“I never wanted the kids to see me as a novelty, just like dad.”
The jury saw text messages in which Depp used profanity to describe Heard and his desire to get revenge on her. Heard’s attorneys said he physically and sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions, often in situations where he had drunk so much that he later passed out.
Depp apologized for the text messages on Tuesday, saying he was “ashamed of some of the references made. I’m embarrassed that back then the heat of the moment, the heat of the pain I felt, went to dark places.
The lawsuit itself is said to be over whether Heard defamed Depp when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic violence. In the article, Heard described himself as a “public figure representing domestic violence.”
She never mentioned Depp by name, but Depp and his attorneys said it was a clear reference to allegations Heard made in 2016, when the couple was getting divorced and she was seeking a restraining order against him.
Heard’s attorneys, who filed their own counterclaim against Depp, said nothing in the article defaming him. They say the abuse allegations are true and that the damage to Depp’s reputation – which he says got him booted out of the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise – was due to his own bad behavior.
Depp’s testimony is expected to last through Wednesday. Heard is scheduled to testify later in the trial.
https://www.independent.ie/style/celebrity/i-have-never-struck-any-woman-in-my-life-johnny-depp-says-as-he-takes-the-stand-in-libel-case-against-ex-amber-heard-41568014.html “I’ve never hit a woman in my life,” says Johnny Depp while commenting on ex Amber Heard’s defamation case