Johnny Depp has told a US court that he believes he was a victim of domestic abuse during his marriage to Amber Heard.
Depp, 58, decided to take action against Heard, 35, after she wrote an opinion piece in 2018, detailing her experiences with domestic abuse.
The article in question, initially published by the Washington Post does not name Mr Depp but legal representatives for Heard say it is protected by freedom of speech.
Lawyers for Depp say it “falsely implies” that she was a victim of abuse during their marriage.
Depp has denied the allegations made by Amber but says he is “ashamed” after the court was shown a video of him smashing things in a kitchen as well as abusive texts about Amber.
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
During the Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s testimony, his lawyer Camille Vasquez asked: “What did you say in response when Ms Heard said ‘tell the world, Johnny, tell them I Johnny Depp, a man, am a victim too of domestic violence?'”
He replied: “I said yes, I am.”
The court had previously heard that Johnny had sent a message to Paul Bettany saying: “Let’s burn Amber.
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“Let’s drown her before we burn her, I will f**k her corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.”
However, Depp said he and Bettany had connected over their “abstract sense of humour” that they used to deal with difficult situations and their comments were never “intended to be real”.
Explaining the situation, Depp said: “As these are private texts there was a lot, in context.
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“It’s important to know none of that was ever intended to be real and the language used which, yes, I am ashamed (of) has to be spread on the world like peanut butter.
“For example, the text that is about burning Ms Heard is directly from Monty Python and the sketch about burning witches and then drowning the witches.
“This is a film we’d all watch when we were 10 – it’s just irreverent and abstract humour.”
(Image: REUTERS)
Meanwhile, Heard’s lawyers have previously described Johnny as an “obsessed ex-husband hell-bent on revenge.”
Her lawyer, Benjamin Rottenborn said she had suffered “sexual violence” at the hands of Depp, before saying he was “an obsessed ex-husband, hellbent on revenge,” while Amber sat at the back of the courtroom.
Amber Heard is also expected to take the stand in the trial, which is expected to last a total of seven weeks.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
