Johnny Depp’s sister Christi Dembrowski testifies about her upbringing during his defamation trial against Amber Heard.
The first witness in her brother’s defamation case against the Aquaman star belongs to amber, Johnny Depps Sister told a jury her abusive mother gave them a poor model of a healthy marital relationship. Such testimony was a prelude to the insult, which Heard described to Depp as an “old fat man.”
Earlier Tuesday, Depp’s attorneys told the jury that Depp’s abusive mother served as a role model that led him to tolerate similar alleged behavior from Heard. Christi Dembrowskis The testimony went deep into the siblings’ upbringing, claiming their mother would scream and hit their conflict-averse father – who “never responded”.
Depp’s attorneys claim that the same dynamic would play out decades later between the son and Heard, who would later emerge as a domestic abuse survivor.
In 2016, Heard rattled off such allegations in support of a restraining order obtained just a year before her divorce from Depp. Those bitter lawsuits caught the attention of paparazzi, but the simmering controversy came to a head in the wake of the #MeToo movement, when Heard revived those allegations with a 2018 Washington Post op-ed.
Depp and Heard, who are now facing each other in a lawsuit in Fairfax County, Virginia, are pursuing and defending themselves against defamation allegations related to these abuse allegations.
Decades before the racy and prolonged courtroom fight, Dembrowski portrayed her younger brother as a “shy, sweet little boy” whose maternal role model was a mother who teased his sluggish eye condition by calling him “one-eyed.”
Depp took the taunts in stride and didn’t respond “negatively,” Dembrowski said.
“As a young child, nothing that happened in our house felt good, and as I got older, both Johnny and I decided as soon as we left that we would never repeat anything like our childhood,” testified Dembrowski.
Both pursued careers in Hollywood. She was a production assistant and partner in his film production companies. She told a jury that she worked hand-in-hand with his agent, meeting with producers and executives at studios and negotiating contracts. About a decade after his starring role in the coming-of-age film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Depp’s career took off on Pirates of the Caribbean.
“After that he was more recognizable. So many people loved that character,” noted Dembrowski, referring to Capt. Jack Sparrow.
One of those professional opportunities was The Rum Diary, the 2009 film in which Depp met Heard. She was about two decades his junior, but Depp’s attorneys say she ended up courting him. Dembrowski said she has concerns about the progression of their romance and said Heard would offend him.
When Depp said he had a meeting with Dior, a disgusted Heard scoffed: “Why would they want to do business with you? It’s about class and style, and you don’t have that,” Dembrowski said.
Depp and Heard married in 2015, Dembrowski still had reservations because no marriage contract had been signed yet.
“I was scared,” Dembrowski said. “I was actually devastated that it would happen as soon as it was pushed. I tried to persuade him to wait and not rush things.”
With the wedding date approaching, talks about the marriage contract had not materialised. Dembrowski said Depp never signed one because Heard did not agree to it, instead attending her brother’s wedding in Los Angeles.
Dembrowski said she never saw Heard and Depp argue or engage in a physical altercation.
Under cross-examination, Heard’s attorney J Benjamin Rottenborn confronted the witness with text messages she sent to Depp about his drug and alcohol use. “Quit drinking,” “Quit coke,” and “Quit the pills,” Dembrowski wrote in back-to-back messages. Dembrowski admitted sending them but avoided saying directly on the witness stand that Depp had a problem. She also denied Rottenborn’s implication that her business and financial well-being were connected to her brother’s. Her testimony will continue on Wednesday.
(Screenshot via Law&Crime Network)
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