Amber Heard

Heard's counsel presents Depp as an 'an obsessed ex-husband hellbent on revenge'

Why, I’m not sure, because the evidence isn’t pretty for Mr Depp.” “She has been living and breathing this lie for years now,” she said. “But that’s going to come out over the course of this trial.” “Today, his name is associated with a lie. “She is preparing to give the performance of a lifetime in this trial.” Heard’s attorneys, meanwhile, argued that her allegations are true, she had a right to express her views, “and all Mr Depp has wanted to do is humiliate Amber, to haunt her, to wreck her career”.

Amber Heard "concocted a role as a victim", the former spouses' defamation trial is told.

She did not name Johnny Depp, she did not write the headline and in America there is a special constitutional protection for words written in the newspapers. "She has been living and breathing this role for years now and she is preparing to give the performance of her life." Yes, she had accused him of abuse but that was not what her article in the Washington Post was about. Before court proceedings began they were warned to keep phones hidden, to not take pictures, there would be no shouting of 'we love you, Johnny.' But as it began there was not a murmur or a sign of movement. Johnny Depp may have lost his case in London, this they feel will be different. "Mom would, she would scream, she would yell.

Johnny Depp is suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation because of an op-ed she wrote about domestic abuse. Attorneys' opening statements indicate the ...

Rottenborn said he wasn’t sure why they were making that choice, given that the jury is about to see the “real” Depp under the money, fame and pirate costume. Some incidents, they said, happened when Depp was blacked out from drugs and alcohol, and his worst times were known as when “the Monster” would come out. “It is all a lie,” Vazquez said, calling Heard a “profoundly troubled person” who was about to “give the performance of her life” during the trial. They said she made up a story of him abusing her to keep him when he wanted to file for divorce, and when that didn’t work, she “recast herself as an abuse survivor.” They alleged that Heard made up elaborate stories and faked photos that showed her with bruises. He showed three statements from The Post’s op-ed on the screen that he said defamed Depp, who was not mentioned in the piece. “Ms. Heard did not use Mr. Depp’s name in the op-ed.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard detail abuse allegations in opening statements in Depp's defamation trial on April 12 — with Heard accusing the former ...

The opening statements in Depp v Heard defamation duel in Virginia were no less shocking, despite being familiar from earlier trial in London in 2020.

"She said I needed to get off my cross and stay out of her marriage," Dembrowski said. She said Depp wanted a pre-nuptial agreement to protect his kids and Heard refused to sign. Dembrowski tried to push back against questions about texts she sent Depp in 2014, which Rottenborn asserted involved her telling him to stop drinking, taking cocaine and pills. "She said 'why would Dior want to do business with you, they’re about class and style, you don’t have style,' " Dembrowski said. "Amber made a mistake millions before her and millions after who are victims of domestic abuse - she chose to stay. She said her brother's reaction as a child was to run and hide during these episodes. One incident that stayed with her, she said, was after she met with Dior about working with Depp; Heard's reaction was disbelief and disgust. "The words she wrote are true...She drew on her experiences as someone who reported domestic abuse and there is no dispute she did in fact report this in 2016...This article is about the social change she is advocating and which the First Amendment protects." But Rottenborn argued the case is about the First Amendment and how it protects Heard's right to comment on a matter of public interest. "(Depp) will go to his grave knowing there are people out there in the world who believe he abused a woman," Vasquez said. Anticipating testimony that some witnesses claimed to see Heard without bruises or other marks of abuse after this alleged episode, Bredehoft said Heard never left her bedroom without full makeup. "By choosing to lie about her husband for her own personal benefit, (Heard) forever changed Mr. Depp's life and reputation.

As the former couple's dueling defamation cases got underway on Tuesday, Depp and Heard's teams previewed its case to come in their respective opening ...

(The actor was in a relationship with Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his two children, at the time.) “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,” was what she wrote in 2018. A forensic pathologist will argue the injuries Heard sustained in one particular photo of alleged abuse are not consistent with her “brutal allegations,” Depp’s lawyers said. Chew focused on the reference to “two-years ago” in an op-ed written by Heard published by The Washington Post in 2018. It was apparent that anti-SLAPP legislation, intended to curb frivolous free-speech-related lawsuits against people exercising their First Amendment rights, will factor into Heard’s argument, as her team seemed tightly focused on her words in the op-ed at the center of the libel case. Depp’s lawyer, Benjamin Chew of the firm Brown Rudnick, went first, saying, “For nearly 30 years, Mr. Depp built a reputation as one of the most talented actors in Hollywood, a respected artist whose name was associated with success at the box office.