Private details about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's relationship are being aired out in court, including what their former marriage counselor describes as "mutual abuse" between the stars.
Depp, 58, is suing Heard, 36, for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in which she opened up about surviving domestic violence. He originally filed the $50 million lawsuit back in 2019 but it was delayed due to the pandemic, until a jury was selected on April 11 in Fairfax, Virginia, and opening statements began the following day.
Back in November 2020, Depp lost his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a "wife-beater." The court upheld the outlet's claims as being "substantially true" and Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.
In this case, however, he is suing Heard directly.
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The pair met while making the 2011 movie The Rum Diary and later wed in 2015. They broke up in May 2016 when Heard sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, accusing him of abusing her. Depp denied the claims, and they settled their divorce out of court in August 2016.
Depp has testified that his "goal is the truth" as he seeks to clear his name in the trial, which is being televised live via various outlets. Ahead of the trial, Heard — who began her testimony on May 4 — said in a statement that "hopefully when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny. I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in front of the world."
Read on for some of the biggest revelations so far in the trial and check back for updates as the six-week proceedings continue. (The trial resumes Monday, May 16, at 9 a.m. ET after a weeklong break.)
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While much of the evidence included in this case was already made public in the 2020 U.K. case, Heard's allegation of sexual assault along with other forms of domestic abuse was not known widely until opening statements.
The Aquaman actress' attorney Ben Rottenborn told the courtroom Heard suffered domestic abuse by Depp that "took many forms," including physical, emotional, verbal and psychological. He added that she "did suffer sexual violence at the hands of Depp. ... You will hear in the most graphic and horrifying terms about the violence that she suffered. You'll hear that straight from her. She will get on the stand and she will tell you that. It happened."
A spokesperson for Depp denied the allegation, calling it "fictitious" and "for the purpose of Hollywood shock value of which Amber has mastered and used to exploit a serious social movement."
One of the more harrowing alleged incidents involved Heard being repeatedly penetrated in her vagina with a bottle by Depp in Australia, she testified. "I can't believe I have to do this," she said, breaking down on the stand when asked by her lawyer to describe the scenario in graphic detail as Depp looked on from his seat in the courtroom.
Many of Depp and Heard's past texts have been read aloud to the jury. One of those was an October 2016 exchange between Depp and his longtime friend Isaac Baruch, when Depp wrote, "Hopefully that c---'s rotting corpse is decomposing in the f-----g trunk of a Honda Civic!!"
During his cross examination, Depp said he is "not proud of any of the language that I used" in the explicit texts.
Other texts sent by Depp that were brought up in court included one about drowning and burning Heard, in which Depp added, "I will f--- her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead."
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While discussing his February 2015 wedding to Heard (which included "Dinner, dancing and drugs" written on printed schedules of the festivities, Depp recalled), Depp revealed that his daughter Lily-Rose declined to attend the nuptials.
"My daughter Lily-Rose did not come to the wedding. She and Ms. Heard were not on particularly great terms, for several reasons," he said.
The 22-year-old actress is the older of Depp's two children with ex Vanessa Paradis. They also have son Jack, 20.
Both Depp and his older sister Christi Dembrowski have testified that their late mother Betty Sue Palmer was abusive toward them growing up, as well as toward their father John Sr., who is now 84.
"When Betty Sue, my mother, would go off on a tangent toward my father — and of course, in front of the kids, it [didn't] matter to her — he amazingly remained very stoic and never, as she was rationing him with horrible things, he stood there and just looked at her while she delivered the pain, and he swallowed it. He took it," said Depp.
When asked why he stayed in his marriage with Heard despite the alleged abuse he faced, Depp explained: "I suppose because my father stayed [in his abusive marriage]. ... And I didn't want to fail. I wanted to try to make it work. I thought maybe I could help her. I thought maybe I could bring her around. Because the Amber Heard that I knew for the first year, year and a half was not this, suddenly this opponent. It wasn't my girl, she had become my opponent."
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While discussing his previous struggles with substance abuse, Depp confirmed that he at times did recreational drugs with famous friends, like WandaVision star Paul Bettany and controversial musician Marilyn Manson.
When asked by Rottenborn if Bettany was a "good friend you've done drugs with," Depp confirmed "yes" after noting, "That's a strange question. Paul Bettany is a good friend, yes." The pair made the movies The Tourist (2010), Transcendence (2014) and Mortdecai (2015) together.
Later, when asked if he has done drugs like cocaine with musician Manson, Depp said, "We've had cocaine together maybe a couple of times," and joked, "I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so that he would stop talking so much."
Reps for Bettany and Manson did not respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment.
Depp also testified that Heard "despised" Bettany because "we had become such close friends, and for her he was a threat and would take me away from her, with regard to if Paul Bettany were getting the attention from me, that was a show-stopper. It would cause all kinds of unpleasantries."
A point of contention in this case involves an infamous fight between Depp and Heard in Australia, where he was filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in March 2015. It resulted in his right middle finger being severed at the tip. He claims it happened when Heard threw a vodka bottle at his hand as it rested on a bar top, though her legal team denied that version of events.
During his testimony, Depp's team showed graphic, bloody photos of the finger taken that night and in the hospital after, when Depp told doctors it happened when his hand was caught in an accordion door. He claims he lied at the time in the hospital in order to keep Heard's name out of the situation.
Depp held up the now-healed "mangled" finger for the courtroom to observe, calling it "funny-looking."
In audio recordings played by Depp's legal team, Heard admitted to having started a physical fight, and she argued with him that she didn't "punch" him but was "hitting" him.
"You didn't get punched; you got hit. I'm sorry I hit you like this, but I did not punch you," she told Depp. "I did not f-----g deck you. I f-----g was hitting you. I don't know what the motion of my actual hand was. But you're fine. I did not hurt you. I did not punch you. I was hitting you," she could be heard saying.
She added in the audio: "I'm not sitting here bitching about it, am I? You are. That's the difference between me and you. You're a f-----g baby. You are such a baby. Grow the f--- up, Johnny."
Depp — who has said multiple times under oath that he has never struck Heard or any woman — was also asked about a December 2015 incident where he allegedly head-butted Heard, who sustained bruises on her face. He "vehemently" disagreed with the statement that he intentionally head-butted her, arguing that it could have been an accident while he attempted to restrain her.
A video played by Heard's legal team that she once filmed showed Depp slamming cabinet doors in their kitchen one morning, and another piece of audio showed the actor threatening to cut himself with a knife as Heard begged for him to stop.
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During opening statements, Heard's attorney Elaine Bredehoft held up a Milani Cosmetics Conceal + Perfect All-in-One Correcting Kit while telling the jury how Heard concealed alleged bruises on her face. Bredehoft did not mention the brand or specific product by name but said Heard always brought makeup with her wherever she went.
In a TikTok video, Milani Cosmetics denied that their product could have been used since it wasn't sold until December 2017, and Heard and Depp's marriage ended the year before when she filed for divorce.
A source close to Heard told PEOPLE that her lawyer "was using an example of the kind of makeup that she used." Milani Cosmetics said in a statement that its TikTok post "was to verify the claim that our eagle-eyed and loyal fan base made about the product named in the trial. Milani Cosmetics is not taking a formal stance on the trial, evidence or future outcome of the case."
Heard filed for divorce in May 2016, and her domestic violence restraining order against Depp was filed less than a week after the divorce filing. Depp testified that Heard asked to meet with him in July 2016 despite the restraining order while he was in San Francisco, which "confused" him.
"I was talked into going there and met with her in hopes that she would retract her lies that the world was now fed," he said. "In no way was she ready to do that, and I couldn't understand why I was there — everything had been taken from me…."
Depp said he felt Heard brought him to that meeting "under false pretenses" and, after the fallout of the allegations against him, he was "really just at the end, just at the end; I couldn't take it anymore." In a recording that meeting played in the courtroom, Depp could be heard threatening to cut himself in front of Heard, who begged him to stop.
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Dr. Shannon Curry — a clinical and forensic psychologist tasked by Depp's legal team to evaluate Heard based on case files, records and two meetings with the actress — claimed in her testimony that Heard does not exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from her allegedly abusive relationship with Depp.
Additionally, Curry suggested Heard shows signs of "borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder" that could lead her to "feign" PTSD and frame herself as a victim, exaggerating or falsifying symptoms.
During cross-examination, Heard's attorney asked Curry whether she was board certified. Dr. Curry responded that she is not. The psychologist was also asked about having dinner and drinks at Depp's home before she was placed on retainer. She also pointed out it was never her job to evaluate Depp's psychological state in this case.
A week later, Heard's legal team had another forensic psychologist, Dr. Dawn Hughes, testify, contradicting Curry's analysis by saying Heard does have PTSD caused by "the intimate partner violence by Mr. Depp." Hughes — who said she "always" goes into an evaluation with a "healthy dose of skepticism" — also said Heard showed no signs of feigning or malingering her mental health.
Talent agent Christian Carino (who happens to be Lady Gaga's ex-fiancé) was once a close friend of Heard's, and that the star would confide in him about her relationships. In text messages read aloud in Carino's deposition, Heard wrote to him back in August 2017 — over a year after her Depp breakup and restraining order — "I've written so many notes. Can you give him one? I don't know how or where to start. There's no way to begin and all I have to say, but I have so many. Finally I am single, clear in my heart and mind. I just want him to know I love him and that I am sorry."
Depp's security guard Travis McGivern testified that he once stood between the actor and Heard in 2015 when a dispute got "louder" and "more volatile" as both parties shouted obscenities at each other. McGivern said he saw Heard throw a Red Bull can at Depp and that she "tried to spit on" Depp at one point.
He also said he saw her punch Depp: "Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fist and an arm come across my right shoulder and I heard and saw a closed fist contact Mr. Depp in the left side of his face. That was Ms. Heard's fist," he said. Adding of the actor's reaction, McGivern said: "The initial look on his face kind of mirrored mine, kind of a look of shock. Like, 'What just happened? Where did that come from?' At that point, I wasn't gonna let Mr. Depp get hit any more so I moved him down the last flight of stairs to the lower level and told him, 'We are leaving.' It wasn't up to him anymore. Just for his safety."
When Heard began her testimony, she told the jury, "I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is. This is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything." One moment Heard testified about in detail is when Depp allegedly first struck her. She said she will "never forget" it because "it changed my life."
As Heard testified, she laughed about one of Depp's tattoos and he "slapped me across the face." At first, she thought it was a joke, but then he slapped her two more times, knocking her to the ground, she said.
Crying, Heard said in the courtroom, "I knew it was wrong. And I knew that I had to leave him. And that's what broke my heart. ... I wish I could sit here and say I stood up and I walked out of that house and I drew a line and I stood up for myself."
Depp, meanwhile, was previously asked about the alleged tattoo incident while he was on the stand, saying that the moment as Heard explains it "didn't happen" and added in his testimony: "I've never struck Ms. Heard. I have never struck a woman in my life. I'm certainly not going to strike a woman if she decides to make fun of a tattoo that I have on my body. ... That allegation never made any sense to me whatsoever."
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The actress described feeling "so lonely" after an incident when Depp allegedly sexually assaulted her by conducting a "cavity search" looking for drugs. "He shoved his fingers inside me," she said while getting emotional on the stand. "I just stood there staring at the stupid light. I didn't know what to do. I just stood there while he did that. He twisted his fingers around. I didn't say, like, 'stop' or anything."
When Heard's attorney Ben Rottenborn, in his opening statements, brought up Heard's allegations of sexual assault along with other forms of domestic abuse she experienced, a spokesperson for Depp denied the allegation, calling it "fictitious" and "for the purpose of Hollywood shock value of which Amber has mastered and used to exploit a serious social movement."
The actress testified about Depp not wanting her to continue working, describing it as a "constant battle" convincing him she could take a new project. She worked with James Franco for a second time on the 2015 independent film The Adderall Diaries, which led to arguments with Depp, who suspected her of having an affair with her costar.
"He hated, hated James Franco and was already accusing me of kind of secretly having a thing with him in my past, since we had done Pineapple Express together," she said.
While she was filming Adderall Diaries in New York and Depp was doing Black Mass in Boston, they flew together on a private plane to Los Angeles, when she says he slapped her and kicked her to the ground in front of his assistants and security guards. When he testified, Depp said this didn't happen, arguing that she was the aggressor and he hid from her in the bathroom.
"No one said anything. No one did anything. You could hear a pin drop on that plane. You could feel the tension. But nobody did anything," Heard said through tears.
When court wrapped on May 5 before a weeklong hiatus, a spokesperson for Depp issued a statement undermining Heard's emotional testimony, saying she "did indeed deliver the performance of her life." They added that her "stories have continued to grow new and convenient details" but Depp's "recollections have remained exactly the same throughout the six painful years since her first allegations were made."
Depp's spokesperson added, "The upcoming cross examination from Mr. Depp's team will be most telling, and will certainly highlight the many fallacies Ms. Heard has now attempted to pass off as fact throughout her convoluted testimony."
In response, a Heard spokesperson issued their own statement, saying that Depp's "defamation claim is falling apart so rapidly that his counsel are turning from prosecutor to persecutor." They slammed his team's "approach of attacking the victim and refusing to take responsibility for his own conduct."
Heard's side said Depp's "panicked" legal team is "fighting tooth and nail to prevent compelling evidence and photos from being introduced. Small wonder Mr. Depp does not have the fortitude or courage to even look at Ms. Heard at all throughout the proceedings — as he could not in the U.K. trial — and, instead he doodles and snickers." They called Depp's courtroom behavior "pitiful."
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.