Here’s a refresher on what you should know.
Depp and Amber met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009, married in 2015, and have been embroiled in a contentious breakup for months, with both sides facing misconduct charges.
In 2016, Heard claimed that Depp injured her face after she threw a phone at her at her Los Angeles home. Depp denied the allegation and was not charged with any crime.
The couple settled their divorce months later and released a joint statement that read, in part, “Our relationship has been intensely passionate and at times fickle, but always bound by love.” In December 2018, Heard wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post with the headline, ” I spoke out against sexual violence – and faced the wrath of our culture. This needs to change,” in which she wrote that she “became a public figure representing domestic violence, and I felt the full force of our culture’s anger for women speaking out.”
“Friends and advisers told me I would never work as an actress again – that I would be blacklisted. A film I was attached to to recast my role,” Heard wrote. “I had just filmed a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand and the company dumped me.”
Depp’s name is not mentioned in the play.
The suit
The following year, Depp filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard.
His charge, while the actor is not named, “was clear in the op-ed (and other media outlets have consistently characterized him as such) that it was about Ms Heard’s alleged victimization after she publicly accused her former husband, Johnny Depp (Mr. Depp). had. for domestic violence in 2016, when she appeared in court with an apparently bruised face and obtained a restraining order against Mr Depp on May 27, 2016.
Depp’s lawsuit also alleges Heard’s allegations that resulted in financial losses for him, including being dropped from future Pirates of the Caribbean films after he helmed the franchise for 15 years.
Over the years he has maintained his innocence of ever abusing Heard, complaining in a 2021 interview with The Sun that Hollywood is boycotting him.
“A man, an actor in an awkward and chaotic situation in recent years?” He said, “But you know, I’m moving to where I need to go to do all of this… to bring things out into the open.”
Heard’s response to the filing
In 2019, the actress tried to have the lawsuit dismissed.
In an affidavit obtained by CNN and included with Heard’s motion to dismiss the case against her, she claimed that a year into their relationship, she witnessed the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s drug and alcohol abuse .
“Whenever he used, I worried about both of us,” Heard said in the filing. “He became a completely different person, often delusional and violent. We called this version of Johnny ‘the monster’. “
The court documents detail multiple instances of alleged abuse in which Heard alleges that Depp hit her, threw bottles, yelled at her, pushed Heard, pulled strands of her hair, and once strangled her.
In response to the allegations, Depp’s attorney, Adam Waldman, told CNN, “A hoax faced with the reality of evidence requires new lies to hold its own.”
The application for dismissal was rejected.
Heard filed a $100 million defamation counterclaim against Depp in 2020, which is pending.
The newest
Over the weekend, Heard posted a note about the upcoming trial on her verified social media accounts, writing, “I never gave a name [Depp], but I wrote about the price women pay when they speak out against men in power. I’m still paying that price, but hopefully once this case is closed I can move on and so can Johnny.”
“I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it pains me greatly to have to act out to the world the details of our past life together,” she wrote. “At this point I recognize the continued support I have happily received over the years and in the coming weeks I will rely on it more than ever.”