Johnny Depp has made the extraordinary claim that Amber Heard painted bruises on herself to make him look bad as he set out to defend himself from his ex wife's claims that he was physically abusive towards her.
The star has repeatedly denied the abuse allegations. However, newly-filed court documents give fresh detail on how he intends to defend himself. Depp not only denied the allegations, but claimed Heard carried out “innumerable acts of domestic violence” against him and fabricated evidence to support her claims that he attacked her.
Heard’s lawyer responded by dismissing Depp’s “increasingly desperate” efforts to revive his career by attacking those who used to be closest to him.
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Depp and Heard married in 2015 but went through an incredibly bitter divorce just a year later. Heard wrote an article for the Washington Post in 2018 describing Depp's alleged abuse of her, after which Depp launched a $50m defamation lawsuit against her. Heard asked a judge to dismiss the suit, leading to the new response from Depp, The Guardian reported.
He wrote: “I have denied Ms Heard’s allegations vehemently since she first made them in May 2016 when she walked into court to obtain a temporary restraining order with painted-on bruises that witnesses and surveillance footage show she did not possess each day of the preceding week … I will continue to deny them for the rest of my life.”
Depp insisted that he has “never abused Ms Heard or any other woman” and went on to accuse Heard of abusing him, accusing her of becoming violent towards him after drinking alcohol and taking drugs.
“While mixing prescription amphetamines and non-prescription drugs with alcohol, Ms Heard committed innumerable acts of domestic violence against me, often in the presence of a third-party witness, which in some instances caused me serious bodily harm,” wrote the actor.
Depp's allegations were sharply denied by Heard's lawyer, who said Depp was lashing out at her to try to save his career which has suffered in the wake of Heard's allegations, and accused Depp of gaslighting.
“Johnny Depp repeatedly beat Amber Heard … The increasingly desperate attempts by Mr Depp and his enablers to revive his career by initiating baseless litigation against so many people once close to him—his former lawyers, former managers, and his former spouse—are not fooling anyone,” said Heard's attorney Eric George.
“In light of the important work done by the TimesUp movement highlighting the tactics abusers use to continue to traumatize survivors, neither the creative community nor the public will be gaslit by Mr Depp’s baseless blame-the-victim conspiracy theories.”
Heard obtained a restraining order against Depp in April 2016. They settled their divorce out of court in 2017, and said at the time that their relationship was “intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.”
