Actor Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard will face each other in court once again this week, this time in a Virginia courtroom.
The trial involves Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed claiming to be the victim of domestic violence. Heard didn’t name Depp in the column, but it soon became clear she was referring to him. Depp has vehemently denied the allegations and provided evidence that he says shows Heard made up some of the abuse allegations. His attorneys also produced a recording of Heard admitting to hitting Depp.
Heard is countersuing Depp for $100 million. On Sunday, Heard posted a message to Instagram, in which she said that after the trial she hopes she and Depp “can move on,” and that she has “always maintained a love for Johnny.”
“I’m going to go offline for the next several weeks. As you may know, I’ll be in Virginia, where I face my ex-husband Jonny Depp in court. Johnny is suing me for an op-ed I wrote in the Washington Post, in which I recounted my experience of violence and domestic abuse. I never named him, rather I wrote about the price women pay for speaking out against men in power. I continue to pay that price, but 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. At this time, I recognize the ongoing support I’ve been fortunate to receive throughout these years, and in these coming weeks I will be leaning on it more than ever,” Heard wrote.
As far as Heard continuing to “pay that price” for speaking out, she continues to receive roles even after admitting to perpetrating domestic violence against Depp. Meanwhile, Depp has lost roles due to the allegations.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Heard’s attorneys now claim the actress was raped during her relationship with Depp, though they did not name the perpetrator.
Attorney Elaine Charlson Bredehoft made the allegations as she attempted to keep cameras out of the courtroom for the upcoming trial regarding Depp’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, Courthouse News Service reported. Bredehoft claimed Heard was the victim of rape during and before her marriage to Depp.
Bredehoft did not say Depp was the rapist, just as Heard did not specifically say in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed that the actor was the one who abused her, but both claims have led to vehement denials by Depp and his attorneys.
Benjamin Chew, Depp’s attorney, said the allegations from Bredehoft were ridiculous and false, calling Heard “a liar.” Chew told the judge in the case that Depp does not object to allowing cameras in the courtroom.
Heard has also attempted to get Depp’s defamation lawsuit dismissed multiple times, to no avail. The Daily Wire reported in October that Judge Penney Azcarate denied Heard’s last-ditch attempt to get the defamation lawsuit against her thrown out. It was the third attempt by the “Aquaman” actress to get the case dismissed.
Heard’s attorneys argued that the findings in Depp’s U.K. defamation lawsuit — which he lost — should be followed here in the states. In August, Azcarate also ruled against Heard, writing at the time that the facts in the current case were not the same as those in the U.K. In that lawsuit, Depp took issue with Heard and a British tabloid that called him a “wife beater.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Depp lost that case, in large part due to the difficulties in proving libel cases. Depp had to prove that he didn’t abuse Heard — essentially he had to prove a negative. And while a judge in the U.K. acknowledged that Depp was able to cast doubt on at least two of Heard’s allegations, the judge said Depp failed to disprove her other 12 allegations.
Depp’s attorneys called the ruling “perverse” and “bewildering,” pointing out the mountain of evidence the judge appeared to have ignored in arriving at his decision.
“Most troubling is the Judge’s reliance on the testimony of Amber Heard, and corresponding disregard of the mountain of counter-evidence from police officers, medical practitioners, her own former assistant, other unchallenged witnesses and an array of documentary evidence which completely undermined the allegations, point by point. All of this was overlooked,” said Depp’s attorney Jenny Afia. “The judgment is so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Mr. Depp not to appeal this decision.”
Among that “mountain” of evidence, The Daily Wire previously reported, was surveillance videos, eyewitness statements, audio, photos, and more allegedly proving that Depp was the real victim.
“One of the testimonies comes from Trinity Esparza, who was the concierge at the penthouse where Heard claims Depp hit her in the face. Esparza now questions how Heard received the mark on her face she claimed was from Depp, after reviewing surveillance footage from three days later, when Heard’s sister Whitney pretended to punch her in the face, according to court documents,” The Daily Wire reported.
Further, evidence suggested Heard attacked Depp while the actor was in bed and staged the attacks she claimed he committed.
“Unaware that members of Mr. Depp’s security team (including an 18-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department) were mere feet away, Ms. Heard falsely began yelling, ‘Stop hitting me, Johnny,’” Depp alleged in court documents. “The interaction culminated with Ms. Heard making false allegations that Mr. Depp struck her with a cell phone, hit her and destroyed the penthouse. There were multiple eyewitnesses to this hoax.”
Further, Depp’s attorneys presented audio of Heard admitting to hitting the “Pirates of Caribbean” actor.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t, uh, uh, hit you across the face in a proper slap, but I was hitting you, it was not punching you. Babe, you’re not punched,” Heard tells Depp in the recording. “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.”
As to the current lawsuit, Judge Azcarate noted that “the defamation claim in the U.K. was based on completely different statements than the present case.”
Chew, Depp’s attorney, said Azcarate’s decision “did not appear to be a close call,” according to Courthouse News.
The outlet also noted that while Heard did not name Depp in her Washington Post op-ed, he lost his role on “Pirates of the Caribbean” four days after it was published.
