Amber Heard threatened to publicly serve Johnny Depp with a restraining order if he stopped financially supporting her lifestyle after she filed for divorce, evidence from the couple’s $100million defamation lawsuit shows.
Jurors were shown Wednesday a letter Heard’s attorney sent to Depp’s legal team in May 2016, just days after the actress filed for a termination of their marriage following a dispute at their home.
Through her attorney, Heard, 36, released a list of financial and property claims, with the Aquaman star vowing to “keep this matter out of the spotlight” if her demands are upheld.
Her demands included “exclusive use and possession” of the black Range Rover she drove, with Depp continuing to make payments for the vehicle.
She also wanted to continue living rent-free in three Los Angeles penthouses that she and her friends lived in, all owned by Depp, and asked her estranged husband to pay $125,000 of her legal and accounting fees.
Amber Heard (pictured entering the courtroom on Thursday) sent Johnny Depp a laundry list of demands, including use of three penthouses he owned shortly after he filed for divorce in 2016, court exhibits show
Their demands included “exclusive use and possession” of the black Range Rover that Heard was driving, with Depp continuing to make payments for the vehicle. She drives in West Hollywood in 2015
Heard also requested the “exclusive use and possession” of three downtown LA penthouses, all owned by Depp, with Depp continuing to make payments for the homes
The letter, taken as evidence at the trial, sheds light on the hardball tactics used during the failed marriage with the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $50 million over her 2018 Washington Post comment in which she implied she was molested by the actor after identifying as a domestic violence survivor.
Heard has also filed a $100 million counterclaim against Depp over his alleged “smear campaign,” which she claims cost her acting career.
Samantha Spector, Heard’s attorney at the time, mailed the letter, titled “In RE: Marriage of Depp,” to Depp’s attorney Jacob Bloom on May 24, 2016, requesting the actor’s cooperation in the divorce.
Three days earlier, Depp and Heard had their latest argument, in which she claims he hit her with a cellphone.
Spector stated that Heard has not yet applied for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Depp and wants to keep the incident from the public.
“While Amber is afraid of Johnny, she is adamant that we do everything we can to keep this personal matter out of the media spotlight, which is why she has not yet applied for a DV TRO and we have not ensured that Johnny was personally served.” at the film premiere last night,” Spector wrote.
Heard was often spotted driving a black Range Rover in LA when she and Depp were still married
Through her attorney, Heard, 36, released a list of financial and property claims, with the Aquaman star vowing to “keep this matter out of the spotlight” if her demands are upheld
At the time, Depp had been promoting the 2016 Disney film Alice Through The Looking Glass, in which he starred as the Mad Hatter.
The letter states that Depp “violently attacked and threatened” Heard and that there were “multiple witnesses” and photos of the property damage.
The altercation was “not the first incident of domestic violence committed by Johnny against Amber,” Spector wrote, adding that there had been “two other incidents in the past six months.”
Insisting that Heard wanted to work toward a “private and amicable settlement,” she asked Depp to sign the divorce acknowledgment within three days, apparently threatening to file a TRO if he didn’t comply.
“If the requested notice is not signed and the original completed form is not returned to me by May 27, we would have no choice but to arrange for Johnny to be served personally,” Spector wrote.
The letter then listed Heard’s demands, which are phrased as “pendent lite support.”
The demands included “exclusive use and possession of the Black Range Rover” she currently drove, with Depp making “all payments” for the vehicle.
Heard also wanted “exclusive use and ownership” of Penthouses 1, 3 and 5 in the Eastern Columbia Building in downtown Los Angeles — Depp’s real estate — with Depp continuing to pay the mortgage and all utilities.
She also asked for “a contribution to her reasonable and necessary legal fees of $100,000 and $25,000 for forensic accounting fees,” to be paid by the same date.
These photos were shown in court from May 2016 of Amber Heard with an obviously bruised cheek. Saenz said, “I did not identify her as a victim of domestic violence,” adding that she saw no evidence of a crime, including broken glass or a mess in the penthouse
The final demand was that the case be transferred to a retired private judge and the fees split between the two sides.
It’s not clear how Depp’s legal team reacted, but the day after the letter was sent, the first reports of the divorce, which had gone unnoticed on the court file for three days, began to emerge.
Heard filed for a restraining order against Depp on May 27 and included a photo of her injured face in her file.
She was later snapped in court, where she claimed Depp was violent towards her.
Depp claims his ex-wife’s comment, released two years later, cost him the role of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates films.
The exes previously fought a libel trial in the High Court in London in 2020, where a judge ruled Mr Depp had slammed Miss Heard.
The process should be completed by the end of May.