London: American actress Amber Heard told London’s High Court that her ex-husband Johnny Depp had threatened to kill her. Amber Heard appeared Monday as a witness against the Hollywood star in his libel action against a British tabloid newspaper. Johnny Depp is suing ‘News Group Newspapers’, publishers of the ‘Sun’ newspaper, over a 2018 article. The article labelled him a ‘wife beater’ and questioned his casting in the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them franchise.
Depp’s denial
The court here has already heard two weeks of evidence, including five days of testimony from Depp himself. The hearing has laid bare the couple’s volatile relationship and some shocking claims from both parties.
Depp, 57, denies ever being violent with Heard or any other woman. He says Heard, 34, was abusive towards him.
Abuse Heard had to go through
In a sworn statement released Monday to the court, Heard said the abuse she suffered at Depp’s hands was ‘extreme’. “Some incidents were so severe that I was afraid he was going to kill me. It could have been intentionally or just by losing control and going too far. At times he simply did not know how to control anger,” she said in the statement. “Depp explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship,” she added.
Instances of physical abuse
Heard said the actor would obsess about her appearance. Depp would call her ‘a slut’, ‘fame-hungry’ and ‘an attention whore’ if she wore certain outfits.
“The physical abuse included punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting and choking me. At times he was throwing me into things, pulling me by my hair, and shoving me or pushing me to the ground. He threw things at me, especially glass bottles,” said Heard.