FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — The jury in Johnny Depp’s defamation trial of his ex-wife Amber Heard on Monday saw photos of her with red spots and swelling on her face after their last fight before their divorce and heard testimonies about her experience in covering up Bruises with makeup.
Heard concluded her direct testimony in a Virginia courtroom with a third day focused on the final months of her marriage to Depp. His lawyers were due to begin cross-examination later that afternoon.
The trial is now in its fifth week, and jurors have seen multiple photos of Heard throughout the trial, allegedly documenting the abuse she suffered during her relationship with Depp.
However, some of the photos shown on Monday had not previously been seen by the jury and showed redness and swelling much more prominently than previous photos.
Heard said the marks came when Depp threw a phone in her face.
The May 2016 confrontation prompted Heard to file for divorce two days later. A few days later, she obtained a restraining order after a courthouse hearing and was widely photographed exiting the courthouse with a distinct red mark on her right cheek.
The latest fight was a pivotal point in the couple’s ongoing feud. Depp is suing Heard in Fairfax County Circuit Court for defamation over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post in which she described herself as “a public figure who advocates domestic violence.” His lawyers say he was defamed by the article, although he never mentioned his name.
Depp says he never hit Heard and she’s fabricating claims she was abused. Early in the trial, jurors heard from police officers who responded to 911 calls during that final fight and said Heard’s face looked red from crying, but they saw no visible bruises. Witnesses also said they did not see any bruising on Heard’s face for the first few days after the fight.
Heard said in her testimony Monday she did not work with officers who responded to the couple’s penthouse and said her face-to-face interactions with officers were very limited.
She also discussed her makeup routine, using a color correction wheel she called her “blue kit” to cover up blemishes on her face. She said she learned over the years to use shades of green on the first day of a bruise to cover up redness, and switch more to shades of orange as the bruise turned blue and purple.
“I’m not going to walk around LA with bruises on my face,” she said.
Heard testified that she didn’t want to publicly expose Depp as an abuser at her trial, but had to go to court to testify in order to get the restraining order, and she was surprised when she exited the courthouse surrounded by paparazzi.
“I just wanted to change my locks,” she said of why she went to court to get the restraining order. “I just wanted to sleep well.”
During Monday’s testimony, Heard also revised previous statements about the timing of the first time she said she was physically assaulted by Depp. And she firmly denied an allegation by Depp that she left human feces in the couple’s bed after an argument. Heard said it was the couple’s teacup Yorkshire terrier who messed up the bed and that he had a history of intestinal problems since accidentally ingesting Depp’s marijuana.
“Absolutely not,” she said of the alleged poop prank. “I do not find that funny. I don’t know what grown women do. I wasn’t in the mood for pranks.”
However, Heard said that Depp was obsessed with the idea that someone had pooped in his bed. She said it was all he wanted to talk about during that last fight on May 21, 2016, even though Depp’s mother had just died and the pair hadn’t spoken to each other in a month.
The poop allegation is one of several that Depp’s online fans took particular notice of in their social media critique of Heard.
Earlier in her testimony on Monday, she corrected herself about the timing of the first time, saying Depp hit her, which turned to her asking him about one of his tattoos. Heard initially said that happened in 2013, but she said Monday that it actually happened in 2012. She said her confusion stems from wanting to believe the abuse didn’t start so early in their relationship.
“I had allowed myself to forget that the beginning was also violent and chaotic,” she said.
Heard also spoke about the comment itself, saying staffers at the American Civil Liberties Union — for which she began working as an ambassador — wrote the first draft. She said she is happy to lend her voice to the domestic violence debate and has no intention of referring to Depp.
“It’s not about Johnny,” she said. “The only one who thought it was about Johnny was Johnny. It was about me and my life after Johnny.”
Heard concluded her testimony by saying that allegations she receives daily from Depp supporters that she is lying about the abuse are “torture.”
“I want to move on with my life,” she said. “I want Johnny to keep going. I want him to leave me alone.”