Johnny Depp could be heard calling ex-wife Amber Heard a “fat ass” and a “c***” on recordings played in court.
Mr Depp also referred to their arguments having the potential to become a “bloodbath” on the tapes played by Ms Heard’s legal team, as a supposedly tearful Ms Heard could be heard saying “Listen to me cry” as court proceedings resumed on Monday 25 April.
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on Monday 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia, following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
“Go put your f***ing cigarettes out on someone else, you f***ing have consequences for your actions. That’s it,” Ms Heard says on the first recording that was played in court on Monday morning.
“Shut up, fat ass,” Mr Depp responds.
Mr Depp told Ms Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn, that his ex-wife “greatly exaggerated” and that he hadn’t put out a cigarette on her or thrown a cigarette in her direction.
“I f***ed up and cried in my bedroom after I dumped you a f***ing week prior, after you beat the s*** out of me,” Ms Heard says on a subsequent recording. “And then a week later you show up at my doorstep, in my room, saying you wanted to say goodbye.”
“Walking away is necessary,” Mr Depp can be heard saying on one of the audio recordings. “If I don’t walk away or go out after a while, it’s going to be a bloodbath, like it was on the island. Can’t we have some understanding?”
In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard wrote: “Like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet – I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim.
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”. Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”.
Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp, which will be decided as part of the trial.
