WASHINGTON DC —
Johnny Depp’s ex-wife
Amber Heard returns to the witness stand on
Monday as the celebrity couple’s bitter defamation trial resumes in a Virginia
courtroom after a one-week hiatus.
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Heard’s attorneys
are expected to wrap up their questioning of the 36-year-old actress before
turning her over to Depp’s legal team for what is expected to be a grueling
cross-examination.
The first four
weeks of the multi-million dollar defamation case being heard by a seven-person
jury in Fairfax, near Washington, have exposed the couple’s volatile
relationship in excruciating detail.
In her two days of
testimony, a frequently tearful Heard accused Depp of becoming a physically
abusive “monster” when he had been drinking and abusing drugs and of being
obsessively jealous of her co-stars.
“He hated, hated
James Franco,” she said.
Depp, during his
four days on the witness stand, denied ever striking Heard and claimed she was
the one who was frequently violent.
During a
particularly heated argument between the couple in Australia, an “irate” Heard
severed the tip of one of his fingers by throwing a vodka bottle at him, Depp
said.
Heard alleged that
Depp sexually assaulted her with a bottle during the fight which occurred in
March 2015, a month after their marriage.
He then used blood
from his severed finger to write messages on walls and mirrors throughout the
home where the couple had been staying during filming of the fifth installment
of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, she said.
Closing arguments on
May 27
The 58-year-old Depp brought the suit against Heard over an op-ed she
wrote for The
Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself
as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Heard, who had a
starring role in “
Aquaman,” did not name Depp in the op-ed, but he sued her for
implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.
The Texas-born
Heard countersued, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant
physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
Judge Penney
Azcarate has scheduled closing arguments in the case for May 27, after which it
will go to the jury.
Depp’s lawyers
have put experts on the stand who testified that he has lost millions because of
the abuse accusations, including a $22.5-million payday for a sixth installment
of “Pirates.”
Depp filed the defamation complaint in the
United States after losing a
separate libel case in London in November 2020 that he brought against The Sun
for calling him a “wife-beater.”
Depp, a three-time Oscar
nominee, and Heard met in 2009 on the set of “
The Rum Diary” and were married
in February 2015. Their divorce was finalized two years later.
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