Amber Heard Takes the Stand in Johnny Depp Trial, Holds Back Tears During Testimony

Amber Heard took the stand Wednesday as she testified in court for the first time in her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against her. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor is suing the Aquaman actress for $50 million for allegedly defaming him in a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post about surviving domestic violence, despite not mentioning Depp by name.

Taking the stand, Heard said, “I am here because my ex-husband is suing me.” She continued, “I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is. This is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything.” Getting emotional, Heard added, “This is the most painful and difficult thing I’ve ever gone through, for sure.”

During her time on the stand, Heard described falling for Depp while promoting their film The Rum Diary in 2011. “I felt like this man knew me and saw me in a way that nobody else had,” Heard told the jury. “He made me feel seen, made me feel like a million dollars. That kind of feeling where he just lavished gifts, lavished expressions of love, and how he’d never met a woman like me. I remember he took the foil off of this bottle and put it on my ring finger and I had only been with him like, days, maybe it was weeks at the time. It just felt very intense.”

Depp has previously testified that he wants his name to be cleared when it comes to Heard’s allegations of abuse, claiming that he’s lost out significantly financially and in his career because of those allegations. Prior to the trial, Heard wrote in a statement that “hopefully when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny. I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in front of the world.”

As Depp’s attorneys brought up witnesses earlier in the trial, the former couple’s previous marriage counselor Dr. Laurel Anderson testified that Depp and Heard engaged in “mutual abuse” during their relationship. Asked if there was “violence” Depp toward Heard, Anderson answered, “Yes, you’re right. He had been well controlled, I think, for almost, I don’t know, 20, 30 years. Both were victims of abuse in their homes, but I thought he had been well controlled for decades. And then with Ms. Heard he was triggered, and they engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse.”

Anderson also testified that she observed “multiple” small bruises on Heard’s face during a meeting they had. Heard, meanwhile, was recorded in audio files admitting to hitting Depp, and one of Depp’s security guards testified that he witnessed Heard punch Depp once.