Amber Heard finally got a chance to challenge Johnny Depp’s version of their marriage in court on Thursday when her legal team pressed the actor for his alcohol and drug use and lyrics describing how he wanted to kill his then-wife and soil her body.
The cross-examination by Heard’s attorneys followed two days of unchallenged testimony from Depp, during which the actor portrayed Heard as the attacker in their three-year marriage.
Depp, 58, has accused Heard of defaming him with false allegations that have ruined his reputation and career; Heard, 36, is filing a $100 million countersuit, claiming that she spoke the truth and that her opinions are protected as free speech when she wrote in a 2018 Washington Post article that she was a “person of the public life representing domestic violence”.
The problem for everyone is credibility as each has tried to destroy the other’s. At the start of the legal showdown in Fairfax, Va., ten days ago, Heard’s attorneys said Depp physically and sexually assaulted them while abusing drugs and alcohol. On Thursday, they followed suit, asking Depp about text messages he shared with actor Paul Bettany, singers Patti Smith and Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner), and his doctor and chief of security, Stephen Deuters.
In several of the messages, Depp used the term “monster” to describe the person he became while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The court heard scathing exchanges between Depp and Bettany from 2013 and 2014, in which he described his desire to harm Heard: “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!!” he wrote, saying he would “settle her corpse” afterwards defile to make sure she’s dead”.
As Depp filed the lawsuit, he has the legal burden of proving that Heard defamed him when she identified herself as a domestic violence survivor. Heard has admitted hitting Depp on a recording played in court, where she said she hit Depp but didn’t “adore” him.
In another exhibit, judges were shown a photo of Depp asleep after a 17-hour work day during which he also took opioids. Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn, asked Depp if he was aware of how far Heard went to help him and played an audio recording to the court expressing concern that her husband might choke on his own vomit, if left unattended.
“She didn’t like it when she realized I was high on drugs and alcohol,” Depp said during Thursday’s testimony. Heard’s attorneys argue that Depp lacks credibility if he denies molesting Heard, as he often drank and used drugs until he passed out.
To that end, Heard’s lawyers introduced text messages from Elton John, who helped Depp sober up in the early stages of his romance with Heard in 2013. Depp wrote to the singer, describing his ex-wife Vanessa Paradis as a “French blackmailer” who he said would try to brainwash his new girlfriend against him.
The court also listened to a recording of Depp moaning during a now infamous flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Depp later texted Bettany to say he “drank all night before I picked Amber up to fly to LA last Sunday. Ugly buddy. No food for days. Powder. Half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand Red Bull and vodkas, pills, 2 bottles of champers on the plane”.
Depp has previously testified that he only drank a glass of champagne upon boarding the plane and after taking two painkillers locked himself in the plane’s bathroom and fell asleep to avoid Heard’s harassment.
The jury was also shown a box in which Depp allegedly stored cocaine and several large bags of marijuana. In his text message to Patti Smith, Depp said he was “so disappointed in myself” after a 2014 visit to New York City where he got drunk and argued with Heard before they married the following year.
Heard’s lawyers have tried to show that Depp’s time off work, including leaving Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, came before her 2018 op-ed. They argue that the damage to Depp’s professional reputation was due to his own behavior.