American actor Amber Heard told London’s High Court on Monday that her ex-husband Johnny Depp had threatened to kill her many times during years of abuse, denying she had made up her allegations of domestic violence.
Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publishers of Britain’s Sun newspaper, over a 2018 article which labelled him a 'wife beater' and questioned his casting in the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them franchise. The 57-year-old actor, who played Captain Jack Sparrow in the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean series - told the court last week that all of Heard’s allegations of physical and verbal abuse were untrue.
He says her accusations are a hoax and accuses her of domestic violence against him.
Heard told the court she loved Depp but was terrified of “the monster”, a violent alter ego he became when under the influence of drink or drugs, which she described as the “third party in the relationship”. In a written statement, she said some incidents were so severe that she was afraid he would kill her, deliberately or by losing control.
“He explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship,” her statement said. Heard, 34, said the actor would obsess about her appearance and would call her “a slut”, “fame-hungry” and “an attention w****” if she wore certain outfits.
Throughout her evidence, Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws accused her of lying, saying her account did not tally with the version of events the court had heard from Depp’s friends, staff and others, or tally with medical notes. “I don’t want to call anybody a liar,” Heard said when asked why the accounts were different. “I contradict them, they contradict me.”
Asked whether one argument between the couple had been caused by a clash over whether Heard would sign a pre-nuptial agreement, the actor said she was “not interested in Johnny’s money, never have been”. She added that Depp had told her he would rip up any pre-nuptial agreement - none was ever signed - and told her “the only way out is death”.