Amber Heard Says She Struck Johnny Depp After He Tried to Throw Her Sister Down the Stairs
Amber Heard claimed to a British court on Tuesday that the first time she struck her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, after years of alleged abuse came in March 2015 when she defended her sister, Whitney, from being thrown down the stairs.
The actress, 34, testified for the defense team on Tuesday during Depp's libel case against a British tabloid The Sun and its parent company News Group Newspapers, which published a 2018 article calling Depp a "wife beater." Last week, Depp, who has denied abusing Heard, testified and presented witnesses to support his case.
During her testimony, Heard dismissed accusations that she fabricated allegations of domestic violence against Depp, 57, according to ABC News and The Hollywood Reporter.
The Aquaman actress also said she hit Depp for the first time in March 2015 to defend her sister. When asked whether she had punched the Pirates of the Caribbean actor “with a closed fist,” Heard said she had struck him after he had hit both her and her sister.
"He was about to push her down the stairs and the moment before that happened, I remembered information I had heard that he pushed a former girlfriend — I believe it was Kate Moss — down the stairs." Heard said.
“I will never forget this incident," she added. “It was the first time after all these years.”
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard
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Heard was then questioned by Depp’s counsel, Eleanor Laws, on why she had never previously mentioned the allegation involving Moss, who dated Depp in the 1990s.
“I’ve not had the liberty of time or space or energy even to list every thought that crossed my mind,” Heard said.
Throughout Heard's testimony, Depp's lawyer attempted to show inconsistencies in the actress' allegations, accusing her of weaving a “web of lies” and “making this up as you go along.”
However, Heard continued to insist that her allegations of abuse against Depp were true.
"I can just tell you after everything I had been through; I had been strangled, punched, sexually assaulted, among other things," she said.
Marc Piasecki/WireImage; Phillip Faraone/Getty Johnny Depp and Amber Heard
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Heard and Depp tied the knot in 2015. In May 2016, she sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, accusing him of abusing her. Depp denied the claims, and the former couple settled their divorce out of court in August 2016. She donated her $7 million divorce settlement to charity. Both actors signed NDAs barring them from discussing their relationship publicly.
Depp sued her for defamation in the U.S. after she wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described being an alleged victim of domestic violence. While she never mentioned Depp by name, the actor’s lawsuit called her allegations against him a “hoax.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
