(Washington) American actress Amber Heard testified Wednesday in the defamation lawsuit brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, saying it was “the most painful and difficult thing” she had to go through.
Posted at 3:37 p.m.
“I struggle to find the words to describe how painful, horrible it is for me to sit here and relive it all,” she explained at the start of her speech.
“It’s the most painful and difficult thing I’ve had to live,” added the actress, dressed in a dark three-piece suit and blue shirt striped with white and who wore light makeup.
She mentioned the previous witnesses “some I know, some not, my ex-husband with whom I shared my life, talking about our life”.
His testimony was eagerly awaited on the 14and day of this ultra-publicized trial at the Fairfax court, near the American capital, broadcast live on television and on social networks.
58-year-old Johnny Depp claims his ex-wife ruined his reputation and career after he penned an op-ed in the December 2018 washington post in which she claimed to have been the victim of domestic violence in 2016, without however citing her former husband.
He claims 50 million dollars in damages, which correspond to the income he would have earned from his roles if he had not been dismissed from the film studios.
The 36-year-old actress, who has starred in major Hollywood productions Justice League and Aquamancounter-attacked and claims 100 million dollars.
“Panic Attacks”
She claims to have suffered “physical abuse and assault” since their first meeting in 2009 and during their tumultuous marriage which lasted only two years, from 2015 to 2017.
Amber Heard suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from “intimate violence” inflicted by Johnny Depp, said Wednesday morning a psychology expert who had several interviews with the actress.
These symptoms observed when she was filming Aquaman 2 in 2021 “interfered with her ability” to act in the feature film, explained Wednesday Dawn Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist recruited by the team of defenders of the actress.
“She has to keep working even though she has panic attacks, uncomfortable memories of the trauma, palpitations, sweaty palms when she thinks about it,” she said.
The actor, who testified for four days at the end of April, denies having ever raised his hand on Amber Heard, assuring that it was she who was violent. He admitted to heavy drug and alcohol use which he claimed to be in control of most of the time.
A sign of the toxicity of their marriage, he explained in particular that they had, each on their own, got into the habit of recording their altercations, many recordings of which have been broadcast since the start of the trial.
In 2016, she sued her husband for domestic violence before dropping the charges during divorce proceedings.
In April 2018, the British tabloid The Sun accused Johnny Depp of being “an abusive husband”. The actor sued the newspaper and lost two years later in a trial that exposed his drug and alcohol abuse.