Amber Heard‘s younger sister Whitney Henriquez claimed Johnny Depp once hit her before “repeatedly” striking Heard during her testimony on Wednesday. Henriquez, 34, said she was also given a non-disclosure agreement after the incident with the Pirates of the Caribbean actor. The testimony came during Depp’s ongoing defamation trial against Heard.
When Heard, 36, began seeing Depp, 58, Heard’s family “got along really well” with the actor, Henriquez testified, reports PEOPLE. “Frankly, we all fell in love with him. At first.” She admitted to doing drugs with the actor on multiple occasions.
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Henriquez was then asked questions bout the March 2015 incident Heard mentioned in her testimony earlier this month. Depp allegedly hit Henriquez and Heard on a staircase at their penthouse. The incident allegedly began after Heard saw text messages hinting at Depp having an affair. Depp eventually told them, “Amber made me do it.”
Depp threw a Red Bull can that hit his nurse in the back, Henriquez alleged. Then, Depp ran up the stairs, with Henriquez’s back to the stairs, she said. “I’m facing Amber, he comes up behind me, strikes me in the back. I hear Amber shout, ‘Don’t hit my f-ing sister!’ She smacks him, lands one,” Henriquez testified.
Depp’s security guard Travis McGivern then ran up the stairs, Henriquez said. However, by that time, “Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly in the face with the other as I was standing there,” she said. McGivern tried to separate the two stars. Next, Depp “completely destroyed” Heard’s closet, Henriquez said as the jury saw photos of the alleged aftermath.
After the incident, Henriquez was given an NDA to sign. “My understanding is it’s a contract to keep things private. To keep your mouth shut, essentially,” Henriquez testified. “I was asked to sign one. I don’t believe I signed it. I left sometime after.”
McGivern was called to testify earlier in the trial as one of Depp’s witnesses. He told a different version of the staircase incident. McGivern, who still works for Depp, said there was a “relatively peaceful conversation” that became “more volatile.” According to him, Heard was the one who threw the Red Bull can. When McGivern rushed to Depp’s side, the “verbal onslaught continued” from Heard and Depp.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a fist and an arm come across my right shoulder and I heard and saw a closed fist contact Mr. Depp on the left side of his face. That was Ms. Heard’s fist,” McGivern testified. The security guard then led Depp away from Heard. He said Depp had a “nice little shiner” on his face that was “swollen and red” later.
When Heard testified about the incident, she said she “swung at” Depp to stop him from pushing Henriquez down the stats. “In all of my relationships to date with Johnny, I hadn’t landed a blow. And I, for the first time, hit him – like, actually hit him. Square in the face,” the Aquaman star said.
Depp sued Heard in 2019 for defamation over the 2018 Washington Post op-ed Heard wrote about being a domestic violence survivor, even though she did not name Depp in the essay. Depp has denied allegations of violence against Heard or any woman. Heard filed a counter-suit, accusing Depp of starting a smear campaign to discredit her.
