Johnny Depp’s interrogation ends in trial against his ex-wife

AFP

American actor Johnny Depp, 58, was annoyed on Monday as he concluded his cross-examination in the defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, 36, which he filed after she accused him of domestic violence. .

On the eighth day of hearings in the case, in a courthouse in Virginia, in the United States, recordings of the couple’s heated arguments were played. “Shut up, fat,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star tells Heard in a recording.

In another audio, Heard, protagonist in the movie “Aquaman”, accuses Depp of “assaulting her”. He denies having physically abused Heard, claiming that she was the one who frequently acted violently.

Depp filed a defamation suit against Heard for a column she wrote in The Washington Post in December 2018, in which she described having suffered “domestic abuse”. She never named the actor, but he sued her for insinuating he was an abuser and asking for $50 million in damages. Heard counterattacked, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “physical violence and rampant abuse” from him.

Heard’s lawyers asked Depp a lot about his drug and alcohol use during the three days he sat in the dock. “If anyone had a problem with my drinking at some point in my life, it was me,” he said. “The only person I abused in my life was myself.”

Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn, also tried to convince the seven-person jury following the case that the charges against Depp predated the article in The Washington Post.

Rottenborn noted that Heard had filed a temporary restraining order against Depp in Los Angeles in May 2016, in which he alleged abuse and cited several news headlines.

Depp replied that all these notes were trying to influence public opinion, presenting false or biased information. It also downplayed the harsh language he used to describe Heard in text messages sent to various friends. “It’s just irreverent, abstract humor,” he said.