Warning: This article may be triggering for some readers. Please read at your own discretion.
Amber Heard was offered “24/7 security” arranged by CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk after she told him that she wanted a restraining order against her then-husband Johnny Depp.
She denied to Britain’s High Court in London that Musk ever visited her while Depp was away as she took the witness box for her second day of evidence in Depp’s libel case against a British tabloid over allegations of domestic violence.
Depp is suing publisher News Group Newspapers, which produces U.K. tabloid The Sun, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article headlined “Gone Potty — How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”
Depp strongly denies abusing Heard.
She denied the suggestions that Musk visited her in 2015 while Depp was away and Heard told the court that she wasn’t in contact with Musk until the following year.
The 34-year-old actor also denied that she had had an “illicit relationship” with anyone during her time with Depp, specifically with either Tesla founder Musk or actor James Franco.
Depp’s lawyer, Eleanor Laws, questioned Heard on her statement in which she indicated that Depp was “illogically jealous” and that she wasn’t having any “illicit relationships.”
The trial judge, Justice Nicol, intervened to say that the word “illicit… carries a connotation.”
“Not that that matters much, but no,” Heard responded and Laws added, “No, it doesn’t.”
Laws then read out a text message exchange between Heard and Musk from May 22, 2016, in which Heard told Musk that she was going to get a restraining order against Depp.
The messages came a day after she alleges the 57-year-old Depp threw a phone at her “like he was a baseball pitcher” that evening, hitting her on the right cheek and eye. Depp denies these allegations.
Heard denied the allegation she was making things up and said she wears makeup when leaving home that could have camouflaged any injury.
Laws said Musk offered to “arrange 24/7 security” for Heard and revealed that Musk added, “The offer would stand, even if you never wanted to see me again… anyway, sorry for being an idiot. The radio silence hurts a lot. It only matters because I really like you.”
The lawyer also shared evidence from Alejandro Romero, a concierge at the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles where Depp and Heard lived, who said he saw Musk visiting Heard when Depp was in Australia.
In his written witness statement Romero said, “From March 2015 onwards, Ms Heard was visited regularly late at night, at around 11 p.m. to midnight, by Mr Elon Musk.”
He also alleged that Heard gave Musk his own fob to access the building.
Heard said Depp accused her of having affairs with actors including Franco.
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When Heard was asked about it in court, Depp’s lawyer said that she previously said Franco was “someone that Mr. Depp was accusing you of having an affair with and he was quite wrong about it.”
“That’s right,” Heard responded.
The lawyer showed the court footage of Heard travelling downstairs in the elevator at the Eastern Columbia Building on May 22, 2016, before heading back upstairs shortly after with Franco.
Heard confirmed that the man in the footage was Franco and Laws asked her if she was trying to “avoid” being seen by the cameras in the elevator.
Heard said they were just talking and Franco said, “Oh my God, what happened to you?” when he saw the marks left on her face after Depp allegedly threw the phone at her.
Laws also brought up the incident in which feces were found in the bed she shared with Depp following a party.
Depp previously said that one of the triggering incidents for the couple’s separation came when a cleaner found feces in a bed at their Los Angeles penthouse the morning after Heard’s 30th birthday party in April 2016.
Heard claimed that they fought after the party and Depp threw a magnum wine bottle at her, but he denied her claims.
She blamed the defecation incident on one of their Yorkshire terriers, but Depp believed a person had done it.
“It was not left by a three- or four-pound dog. I was convinced that it was either Ms. Heard herself or one of her cohorts involved in leaving human feces on the bed,” Depp previously told the court.
Heard denied that she or any of her friends left “human excrement” on the bed and called the act “absolutely disgusting.”
When Heard was asked about one of her dog’s issues with toilet training she alleged it had become a “common occurrence” after one of the dogs ate Depp’s marijuana as a puppy.
Heard added that she couldn’t “fathom what adult would ever do such a thing” as defecating in the bed.
“I can’t imagine what kind of human being would have a sense of humour like that,” she added. “Other than Johnny, but I don’t think that’s funny, I think it’s horrific.”
In the first session of her testimony on Monday, which is expected to last for three days, Heard denied accusations that she was a heavy drug-taker and drinker as well as allegations she was controlling and abusive herself.
Heard described an incident in January 2015 in a hotel room in Tokyo over a prenuptial agreement between herself and Depp, and suggested there was an argument about it.
She testified there was an argument in the hotel room in Tokyo that resulted in Depp kneeling on her back and hitting her on the back of the head.
“But then Johnny was also accusing me of having an affair with a co-star, and that is what led to the actual argument,” she said.
In written testimony released as she took to the witness box, Heard said she worried Depp would kill her at various times during their relationship, which allegedly saw her enduring “punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting and choking.”
“Johnny attacked me a lot of times, on many different occasions,” she said.
According to Heard, Depp “explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship.”
She also said he blamed his actions on “a self-created third party” that he referred to as “the monster.”
“He had a violent and dark way of speaking: the way he talked about our relationship being ‘dead or alive’ and telling me that death was the only way out of the relationship; the way he would describe what he wanted to do to me if I left him or hurt him. For example, carving my face up so no one else would want me,” she said.
She said that Depp “demeaned” her “any time I tried to wear anything that could be seen as sexy, calling me a ‘whore’, ‘s–t’, ‘fame-hungry’ and ‘an attention whore,’ but it got worse over time.”
Depp and Heard, who met while filming The Rum Diary in 2011, were married on Feb. 3, 2015. On May 23, 2016, Heard filed for divorce, seeking spousal support. She cited irreconcilable differences as the reason. They were officially divorced on Jan. 13, 2017.
Four days after filing for divorce, Heard requested a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Depp, which the judge granted after she submitted multiple photos as evidence of alleged assault, one of which purportedly shows her with what appears to be a bruise on her right eye. She claimed the incident took place on May 21, less than 48 hours before she filed.
In March 2019, Depp sued Heard in a US$50-million defamation lawsuit, citing a piece she wrote for the Washington Post about domestic abuse.
The complaint said that while Depp was not named in the Post article, it was clear Heard was talking about him. The lawsuit called her ongoing allegations of domestic abuse “categorically and demonstrably false.”
“They were part of an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Ms. Heard and advance her career,” the lawsuit said, claiming: “She is the perpetrator.”
The suit said Depp has suffered financial losses because of the accusations, including being dropped from his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
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