Listen to Johnny Depp’s testimony at the trial. 1:59
(CNN) — Actor Johnny Depp resumed testifying in a court in Fairfax, Virginia on Wednesday in his libel trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Depp spoke about the changing nature of his relationship with Heard. He accused Heard of sometimes insulting and degrading him in their relationship, which would lead to arguments.
“I wasn’t allowed to be right, I wasn’t allowed to have a vote,” Depp said.
A dispute between the former couple in 2015 ended when Johnny Depp sought medical attention for a severed finger after he said Heard threw a bottle of vodka at him.
Johnny Depp will testify in his libel trial against Amber Heard on Wednesday.
“She threw the big bottle and she got contact [con su mano] and it broke everywhere,” Depp testified. “Then I looked down and found the tip of my finger had been cut off.”
“I don’t know what a nervous breakdown feels like,” Depp added. “But that’s probably as close as it’s ever been.”
Heard has denied the allegation.
Johnny Depp: “I wanted to try to make it work”
In her roughly three-hour testimony on Tuesday, the Oscar-nominated star opened up about Heard’s allegations of domestic abuse, her history of substance abuse and her experiences with an abusive mother.
“You gradually start to realize that in some way you’re in a relationship with your mother,” Depp testified Wednesday of his dynamic with Heard, comparing the abuse he allegedly experienced from his mother to Heard’s alleged abuse.
Johnny Depp’s attorney asked him why he stayed with Heard while their relationship deteriorated.
“I wanted to try to make it work,” he said.
“Mrs. Heard has talked about suicide a couple of times, so that’s going to be a factor too, that lives in the back of your mind,” Depp said.
The actor, best known for his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about her experiences with domestic violence. She didn’t name Depp in the article, but he claims it cost him a lucrative film job.
When asked at the booth on Wednesday what he lost in light of the allegations, Depp replied: “Nothing less than everything.”
“Once the allegations were made, when the allegations quickly went around the world telling people I was a drunk, cocaine-fuelled menace who suddenly hit a woman in my 50s, it was over,” he said. “You’re done”.
Johnny Depp has maintained his innocence and testified that although he and Heard fought during their relationship, he never “hit a woman”.
On his long second day of testimony, Depp spoke about his tattoos and told the court that Heard made fun of some of them, which he likened to keeping a journal of his life.
He was referring to a “Winona forever” tattoo that Depp said he got for his ex-girlfriend, actress Winona Ryder, but changed to “Wino forever” after their breakup. He said Heard didn’t like it.
“I took out the last two letters and said ‘Wino forever,'” Depp said, adding, “I thought through pain comes humor ‘Wino forever.'”
He said that Heard wanted him to get his own name tattooed, which he eventually did.
“And ironically, it didn’t take long for everything to go wrong,” Depp said.
“I did my best to put a smile on her face instead of a frown and then the onslaught of problems she was experiencing,” she said. “I tried to wake her up laughing by singing silly songs in her ear. Usually I was just trying to keep her happy. Sometimes it worked, often not. But I tried.”
Johnny Depp discussed his use of oxycodone during his time at Heard and the withdrawal symptoms he would experience during detox.
Cross-examination by Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn, began toward the end of the day’s session and will continue Thursday. Heard has yet to comment in the trial, which is expected to last six weeks.
A controversial split
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in 2015.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009, married in 2015 and had a controversial split, with both parties facing misconduct charges.
The couple resolved their divorce in August 2016, releasing a joint statement that read, in part, “Our relationship has been intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.”
Heard had been unsuccessful in her attempts to dismiss the lawsuit. She filed a $100 million defamation counterclaim against Depp in 2020, which is still pending.
In 2020, Depp lost a UK libel case against News Group Newspapers and Dan Wootton, editor-in-chief of The Sun, over an article alleging that Depp had been violent towards Heard during their relationship. The court ruled in favor of the publisher, noting that the tabloid’s claims had proven to be “substantially true.”
Chloe Melas, Lisa France and Sandra Gonzalez contributed to this story.