Amber Heard’s younger sister took the stand on Wednesday to provide details about what she described as a pattern of violent and erratic behavior by Johnny Depp during the short-lived union between the actor and Heard.
Among her allegations: that Depp “hurled” a steak knife at his assistant, called his then-wife—Heard—a “slimy whore,” and even consumed the contents of a ziplock bag full of mystery pills “to see what would happen.”
Whitney Henriquez, who used to live with the celebrity couple, told jurors in Virginia court on Wednesday that the pairing she once adored deteriorated. Part of the cause, she said, was that Depp began making “light jokes” about Heard’s clothing and appearance.
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“And then suddenly he has a problem with her taking any sort of job or any sort of audition… It was another fight,” Henriquez said. “He would often say things like, ‘I don’t even understand why she needs to work. I’ll take of her, I'll take care of you’… It was one of those things that he was, at the end, vehemently against her working at all.”
But another factor in the demise, Henriquez claimed, was Depp’s drug and alcohol use—which she said included partaking in cocaine, weed, MDMA, and shrooms. Once she said, Depp even consumed a ziplock bag full of random pills out of curiosity.
“He laughed about it,” Heard’s sister added. “If he was using or if he was drinking, there was almost always a fight… He would be sober for a little bit and then almost just as quickly fall off the wagon.”
In another example, Henriquez claimed that Depp “hurled a steak knife” at his assistant after a 2013 flight to London.
The allegations mirror those previously made by Heard, who is being sued by Depp for $50 million after she allegedly “devastated” his career with the 2018 Washington Post op-ed describing herself as a domestic violence survivor. Heard has since countersued, alleging defamation after one of Depp’s ex-lawyers called her allegations of domestic violence a “hoax.”
Another of Heard’s claims that Henriquez corroborated: That Depp held one of his Yorkies, Boo, out of a moving car while everyone in the vehicle froze in fear.
Depp has denied the allegations, calling the dog incident “an absolute utter falsity.” He has also denied that he has ever physically hit a woman and identified himself on the stand as a victim of domestic violence.
Henriquez also conceded that she saw Heard and Depp physically attacking and hitting each other in 2015 after a fight spurred by the actress accusing her husband of cheating. Heard has admitted to hitting Depp during that incident, claiming she was scared that Depp was going to hurt Henriquez.
“I’m at the back of the stairs, with my back to the stairs, and that's when Johnny runs up the stairs,” Henriquez said about the incident. “And again, I’m facing Amber. He comes up behind me and strikes me in the back… He hits me in the back, I hear Amber yell, ‘Don’t hit my fucking sister.’”
Soon after the fight, Henriquez—who admitted to doing cocaine with him on multiple occasions—said she eventually left the penthouses the actor owned in Los Angeles after he asked her to sign an NDA. Depp later accused her of selling stories about him to the press, which Henriquez adamantly denied on the stand.
Heard’s younger sister also spoke to the effects that Depp’s lawsuit—and some of the allegations made by his legal team in the media—had on her sister. She said that Heard experienced panic attacks, lost sleep, and would randomly cry.
“These statements devastated her,” Henriquez said.
