Johnny Depp denies trying to discredit Amber Heard in court on the third day of his libel trial
Johnny Depp arrives in court as he faces a third day of questioning on his relationship with ex-wife Amber Heard, as his libel trial against The Sun continues.
The actor has brought a libel suit against the tabloid publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and its executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article, which labelled him a “wife beater”.
Mr Depp’s lawyers say the article made “defamatory allegations of the utmost seriousness”, accusing him of committing serious assaults on Ms Heard, 34, and “inflicting such serious injuries that she feared for her life”.
Sasha Wass QC, for NGN, began her third day of cross-examining Mr Depp by asking him about a detox trip on his private island in the Bahamas in August 2014.
Ms Wass told the court Mr Depp and Amber Heard, by that time engaged to be married, were on one side of the island and a nurse, Debbie Lloyd, was staying on the other side.
Juliet Bremner, ITV Correspondent in court today heard that, Mr Depp praised Ms Heard as “heroic” when she tried to help him get clean during a period of detox but today, he told the high court that was not true.
He paid the compliment in a text to Amber Heard’s mother while the couple were on a private island in the Bahamas. In the text messages he wrote: “There is no luckier man on earth to have Amber in my life, Amber has gone far beyond in taking care of this poor old junkie.”
But in his witness statement Mr Depp had changed his mind and claimed his then fiancée was one of the “cruellest” people, accusing her of refusing to give him medical drugs to alleviate the pain of withdrawal symptoms.
He told the court today that he was due to have this medicine at 4pm but when he asked for them at 3.15pm Ms Heard refused to give way to these demands.
Amber Heard alleges that while they were on the island the actor “flipped” and became angry, kicked her and pushed her to the ground, slapped her face and grabbed her by the hair.
He denies ever physically harming her but, by way of explanation, told the court that the detox was “the lowest point I believe I’ve ever been in my life, I was on the floor, sobbing like a child.”
He told the court that Ms Heard had “fabricated” the claims of assault as “an insurance policy” in case they split up.
Ms Wass said: “I am going to suggest you lied about the extent of her drugs use and alcohol consumption in order to discredit her in this court hearing,” which Mr Depp denied.
The court heard that one month after leaving the island Mr Depp said he “had fallen off the wagon” and was again taking illegal drugs including ecstasy and MDMA.
The doctor who was treating him said that he didn’t believe that Mr Depp was capable of coming off drugs because “romanticised” them and was “quite childlike” - expecting those around him to give him everything he wanted.