Johnny Depp has taken to the stand during his defamation case against his former wife, Amber Heard.
During the ongoing trial, the actor shared an insight into his drug use including using drugs with his pal, Marilyn Manson.
The actor, 58, was being cross-examined today (April 21) as part of his civil defamation claim against Heard in Fairfax, Virginia.
Depp, who was on his third day on the stand, is suing Heard for more than £38 million, saying her domestic abuse claims have harmed his career and reputation.
The actress, 35, has filed a countersuit against Depp, 58, seeking almost £78 million in damages and saying his legal team falsely accused her of fabricating claims against the actor.
(Image: Getty Images)
Heard’s counterclaim accuses Depp of orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment.”
Depp admitted he’d taken pills and cocaine with rocker Marilyn Manson on numerous occasions during yesterday’s evidence.
“I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so he would stop talking so much,” Depp testified, eliciting laughter from the courtroom.
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
At one point, Depp credited Sir Elton John for helping him beat his addiction demons telling the singer: “I would have been swallowed up by the monster were it not for you.”
He added: “Elton is a dear friend, who has been sober for 40 years, 30 years, so we had a discussion and he wanted to get me clean, sober.”
The jury of seven was shown a photo taken in Heard’s house in Los Angeles in March 2013, the morning after Depp fell off the wagon.
(Image: PA)
The picture showed two glasses of whiskey and four lines of cocaine next to a box with a skull and crossbones and Depp’s initials on it.
“You’d sometimes drink whiskey in the morning?” asked Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn during cross-examination.
“Isn’t happy hour any time?” replied Depp.
The trial comes after the actor lost a libel case in which he sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, for publishing a 2018 story with the headline “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”
Rottenborn repeatedly challenged Depp during cross-examination, using the actor’s often contradictory testimony from his London libel case.
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
He sued the paper for branding him a wife beater and lost.
At one point Heard’s lawyer pressed Depp on whether his dad had ever abused him.
“Walls weren’t the only things your father punched,” Rottenborn said. “He punched you in the face once and knocked you down?”
Depp didn’t mention the incident during questions from his own legal team when he discussed his physically and emotionally abusive mother and said his relationship with Heard had the same dynamic.
“Yes, when I was 15-years-old,” Depp replied.
“He had asked me to take the dog for a walk or something or take out the garbage or something meaningless. I just said, no, and he gave me a quick shot. Pretty hefty. Yeah, it rattled my head, it rattled the cage.”
The trial continues.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
