Johnny Depp's attorney presses Amber Heard on photos, donation as cross-examination starts

Depp's attorney Camille Vasquez pressed Heard on her donations to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, asking Heard why she hasn't donated the full amount of her pledge.

Heard said she had pledged the entirety of the settlement and she intends to fulfill the obligation, saying she hasn't been able to fulfill the pledge because Depp sued her.

Vasquez pointed out that she had received the total settlement from Depp by October 2018, 13 months before Depp sued her, and she had not donated the full amount.

"When you say you buy a house, you don't pay for the entire house at one time," Heard said.

When Vasquez said to Heard that she wanted Depp's money, Heard disagreed. "Didn't get it, wasn't interested in it. I loved Johnny, that's why I was with him," she said.

Heard pushed back on questions from Depp's attorney about photographs she had taken of him. Heard said she took pictures of Depp to prove to him he had passed out that way. "I started taking pictures of him so that he knew it was real, that it had gotten this bad," she said.

When Depp's attorney said Depp was asleep on his island in one photo, Heard said Depp was "on the nod, as he would say." 

In another photo, Heard disagreed Depp was asleep.

"No, he was nodding off. Asleep is different. When you're nodding off, you're high on drugs — didn't even feel the cigarette in his hand that had been burning on his leg. It was cause for alarm for me, because I cared about him," she said.

Heard repeatedly responded to the attorney's remarks that Depp was asleep in photos saying he was on the nod. In another photo, of Depp seated with spilled ice cream, Heard disagreed that he was asleep.

"He was nodding off, and I was worried about how bad the medications and the medication change and the drug use had gotten where he wouldn't even feel ice cream or a lit cigarette on him. It scared me," she said.

Heard was quizzed about the rings Depp wears and whether he was wearing them when he allegedly hit her in the face in March 2016. Heard said she did not seek medical attention at that time.

Depp's attorney Camille Vasquez showed photos of Heard after incidents in which Heard testified Depp had hit her in the face, pressing her on her appearance in photos at events after times she said Depp had hit her.

A photo of Heard at a movie premiere in Tokyo showed the actress in a backless dress after an incident in which Heard testified Depp had kneeled on her back. Heard said no marks were visible in the photo.

Vasquez also questioned Heard if she sought medical treatment after an incident in Australia in which Heard had testified earlier in the trial she was sexually assaulted with a bottle and suffered cuts and injuries to her face.

"I didn't need to," Heard said.

Depp's attorney showed a clip of Heard speaking on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" in December 2015, which Heard had previously testified happened after an incident in which she said it felt like she had a broken nose.

"I did have two black eyes after that incident," she told the court Monday and affirmed she had earlier testified a cut to her lip kept reopening.

Vasquez also showed stills from the clip with Heard's mouth open.

Depp's attorney began her cross-examination of Heard on Monday afternoon, playing an audio clip of the two in 2016 during which Depp told her, "You will not see my eyes again."

Heard acknowledged that Depp had not looked at her during the trial. 

"As far as I know, he can't look at me," she said.

Depp's attorney played a clip in which Heard told Depp to "tell the world" he was a victim of domestic violence, which Heard testified she had said because it was "preposterous" her abuser would say so.

Heard's attorney finished her questions shortly after 3 p.m. after asking Heard to describe the emotional impact of the ongoing litigation. Heard is countersuing Depp for $100 million over what she calls a smear campaign.

"It's torture. I'm in so much pain, emotionally," she said.

She said the case has forced her to re-live the incidents and reveal intimate, "embarrassing, deeply humiliating and personal" things that she has survived. 

"I want to move on with my life. I want to move on, I have a baby, I want to move on," she said. "I want Johnny to move on. I want him to leave me alone."

Heard said that while her career "took a hit" after she got the restraining order against Depp, she started getting her career back on track, including a lead role in "Aquaman." As the movie was coming out, Heard agreed to participate in the Washington Post op-ed Depp is suing over.

The ACLU drafted the first draft of the op-ed, Heard testified, and she did not want Depp's name included.

She said she got involved because she believed in some of the causes discussed in the op-ed, was proud of having been named an ambassador for the ACLU and wanted to raise awareness. "There was just a greater cultural conversation being had around gender issues and I was happy to weigh in on what I saw as the unique phenomenon that women — typically women — experience when they come forward against somebody more powerful, when they speak up about gender-based violence. And I thought I could lend my voice to that conversation, that I had something to say about that."

Her attorney asked if she was trying to boost sales for the movie, and she said that isn't how it works. "A major motion picture, a major franchise like that is not aided by the publication of an op-ed in The Washington Post, I'll say it like that," she said. "But the other way around can be said. I was wanting to lend my name at that specific time to potentially advance the causes within the op-ed."

She consulted with an attorney, she said, because she feared retaliation from Depp and accepted all the attorney's edits on the piece. 

She testified that she did not write the online title of the piece, and that the text of the piece was true. She said she became, as the article states, "a public figure representing domestic abuse and I felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out" when she got the restraining order against Depp.

She said all she wanted in the divorce was a joint statement but accepted a settlement of $7 million so it wouldn't be overturned. She testified she was "never interested in Johnny's money."

"I wanted him to clear my name and leave me alone. I've been saying that since 2016," she said.

She elected to donate the settlement money over a period of time to a children's hospital and the ACLU, she said, for tax reasons and because she was receiving the settlement in installments. She said she made contributions in 2016 and 2018.

Elon Musk, "my boyfriend at the time," also donated to those organizations in her name during that time period, she testified.

She has not made more payments, she said, "because Johnny sued me for $50 million in March of 2019." She plans to complete the donations, she said.

The defense played audio clips of conversations between Heard and Depp that Heard described in court as her explaining to Depp that she was trying to get him to stop what she called "a smear campaign" in the wake of their divorce.

Depp told her that he would ruin her career and no one would want to work with her again, she testified. "I was trying to get him to call the dogs off, call if off, because it was forcing me to a position where — he was calling me a liar, and he was forcing me to prove it. And I knew that wasn't going to be good for him. And I kept saying, 'Don't make me prove it. I don't want to,'" she said.

She said she was trying to convince Depp she had photos, evidence and witnesses.

"I thought no one was advising him in his best interests. I thought no one was telling him the truth. I know how he's surrounded by yes-men and I thought nobody was saying to Johnny, 'This is crazy, don't do this.' And I didn't want to hurt him — I didn't want to hurt him, I loved him, I loved him, so much — that's why I'm explaining to him why I didn't file criminal charges, I didn't file a police report, even though it was being used against me, I didn't want this to go to a prosecutor," she said.

Heard broke down on the stand, saying in the recordings she was trying to convince Depp to stop what she said was his side using her lack of cooperation with the authorities against her. 

"I didn't want to get him in trouble, I didn't want to hurt him, I didn't want anything from him," she said. "Just don't call me a liar, that's all I said: Just don't call me a liar. Just don't say this isn't real because I am the walking proof of it."

She recounted that she broke the restraining order to "beg him to stop the machine."

"I was feeling like I couldn't live my life. I was being dropped from commercial opportunities, people were turning on me, a campaign I had shot dropped me," she said, and people in her life were being scrutinized in the press.

The two agreed to meet in the wake of the death of Depp's mother after he asked to see Heard, she testified. But Depp began talking about the feces in the bed, accusing one of her friends of a prank.

"My friends wouldn't do that; that's not something a bunch of 30-year-old women think is funny. What is he talking about? And he kept just going on and on about it," she said.

She told the court she called a friend to help "quell this, what I could only see as a delusion" he was having.

"Our marriage was over, falling apart in front of our eyes, we hadn't seen each other for a month, his mom had just passed," she said. "I couldn't believe he wanted to talk about feces."

When she reached a different friend and put that friend on speakerphone, Depp became irate and started screaming before going upstairs, Heard said.

As she apologized to the friend, who told her to get out of the house and that she wasn't safe, he came back down and grabbed the phone from her hand to start screaming at her friend, she testified.

"When he was done, he says, 'You want to have my woman now, you want to have my bitch, you can have- you, you take her, you can have her,'" she said. "And he, with that, he picks up, pulls his arm back with the phone and throws it at my face, hit me in right in what felt like my eye."

Photos introduced as evidence show Heard with a red mark on her face.

Heard met billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk at the 2016 Met Gala after Depp failed to attend the New York fundraiser. She and Depp were invited as the guests of fashion designer Ralph Lauren, but she said he "effectively stood me up" and she attended alone.

That evening, she spoke with Musk while the two were waiting for the red carpet.

"I was standing in line right in front of a gentleman, it was Elon. I didn't recognize him until we started talking and he had reminded me we had met once before. He was with his mother," she said.

The two were seated at nearby tables and started talking.

"He seemed like a real gentleman, he was really nice," she said, and the two became friends. 

Heard also denied later using drugs with Musk.

Heard addressed an incident brought up during Depp's testimony in which he found feces in bed. She said they were left by one of their dogs.

Heard detailed what her attorney referred to as the "bathroom problems" of the dog, a teacup Yorkie named Boo.

"She had eaten Johnny's weed when she was a puppy and had bowel control issues for her entire life, among some other issues," Heard said.

The dog liked to burrow in the bed, and it was customary that the dogs slept with them in the bed, she said. Heard said she would leave the dog in the bed to discourage the pet from going to the bathroom on the floor, and did so when she and her best friend, Raquel, packed for the Coachella music festival as part of her birthday celebration.

"You'd leave them in bed until you're ready to take them outside to the patio, which is their designated bathroom break area," she said.

Heard said the incident was "absolutely not" a prank.

"I don't think that's funny — I don't know what grown woman does. I was also not in a pranking mood. My life was falling apart; I was at a crossroads in my life. I was really serious. And I had just been attacked, on my 30th birthday, by my violent husband — with whom I was desperately in love and knew I needed to leave," she said. "It was not really a jovial time. And I don't think that's funny, period. It's disgusting."

Heard told the court Depp grabbed her "pubic area" and asked her if she thought she was tough after a celebration at their penthouse for Heard's 30th birthday in 2016.

Heard said Depp arrived late for the event. Afterward, when they were in bed together, Heard said Depp asked her what her problem was, which sparked an argument that led to what she described as a "shoving match" in their bedroom.

During the fight, Heard told the court Depp threw a large bottle of champagne at her, and it went through a painting she liked. Later, she said Depp tossed her cellphone through an open window to the street below, and Heard said she also threw his phone out the window.

In Depp's office, she said he grabbed her by the hair and slammed her into his desk. Later, in a bedroom, Heard accused Depp of holding her down on the bed and grabbing her "by the pubic bone, pubic area."

"He was asking me, kind of taunting me, asking me if I thought I was so f***ing tough, 'You think you're such a f***ing tough guy, huh? Are you so tough now? Look who's so tough. You want to be a man, tough like a man now?'" Heard said.

She said Depp told her she deserved being treated that way, and he eventually left the penthouse. Heard said he returned briefly and screamed, "Happy f***ing birthday," at her before leaving again.

Heard's legal team played a video from February 2016 showing Depp kicking kitchen cabinets and appearing to break glasses.

"I was really worried that the momentum he was on was going to click into a direction of deciding that he was mad at me and I deserved it, and I was terrified that that was going to happen," Heard told the court.

Shortly after the video starts, Depp is seen kicking some lower cabinets. He then takes a glass from an upper cabinet. The sound of breaking glass is heard soon after, and Depp is seen getting another glass.

In the video, Depp asks Heard what she was doing that morning and was skeptical of her answers.

"You want to see crazy? I'll give you f***ing crazy," Depp says in the video as he pours himself a large glass of wine. "Here's crazy."

After filling the glass, Depp spotted the camera.

"You got this going?" Depp asks Heard before he takes the camera out of the room.

On several audio recordings in evidence, Heard discusses hitting Depp and the difference between her punching and hitting him. But in testimony, she offered context to the situation.

'When I'm talking about hitting him, I'm talking about — what that conversation is about is about the disparity, the disparity between Johnny and I in our fights, the disparity of how he would proactively punch me and I would have to resort to reactively hitting him," she said. "I'm talking about the difference between a punch, which Johnny did often, and me having to hit him in my defense." 

"I know the difference between those two — and I'm highlighting the difference between those two. Even if he wasn't twice my size, they're very different and that's what I'm pointing out to him," she said in court.

In a later part of the recording, she said Depp, who was inebriated, misunderstood their interaction as she tried to open a bathroom door to check on him. Heard said Depp "violently reacted" to her opening the door.

He later blamed her, Heard said, for "starting a physical fight between us" and she was trying to be accountable for her own actions and telling him that she couldn't promise him that when she was scared and in pain, she wouldn't react.

Under questioning by her attorney, Heard said Depp would injure himself. She said she almost called 911 in New York in 2014 because she thought she had "done himself an injury."

"He often, in fights, would cut his arms or hold a knife to his chest. Or draw blood, superficially at first but later — like in 2016, especially as our relationship was ending," she said.

"He also put cigarettes out on himself, he'd flick them at me, and once or twice tried to put one out on me, but mostly he would do it while screaming at me. He once did it right in front of me, screaming at my face as he put the cigarette out on his cheek," she said.

Heard testified that Depp had heard about a movie she worked on called "London Fields" and was upset by what he had heard about the film, claiming she had done a sex scene she had not told him about. He insisted on watching a screener while the two were at what she called his "remote" chateau in France.

"We're in this remote place, and we're screening this film that I appeared in and there was a scene — a sex scene — in that movie that started before Johnny freaked out because it looked like me. They had used a body double, unbeknownst to me, without my permission, they had used a body double to do a sex scene," she said.

"I have an incredibly jealous man who already is upset with me for breaking the rule that I had a sex scene. On top of that, I'm telling him, it wasn't me, I didn't shoot that scene. and you can imagine how upset he was. He was irate; calling me a liar and a whore, among other things," she said, kicking off what she called a week from hell during which she said he slapped her across the face and punched her in the jaw.

Amber Heard resumed testifying Monday, describing a 2015 "honeymoon trip" on the Orient Express under questioning by her attorney, Elaine Bredehoft. Heard said she and Johnny Depp argued during the trip over his wanting to resume drinking "brown liquor" after he finished filming the fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. Depp had already resumed drinking wine and champagne, and she said she was fearful the pattern would continue.

"Every time he would pull me away from the side of the car, he would slam me up against the wall," she said, as she clawed at him and tried to get his arms away from her neck. She described her fears that he would kill her.

She said he tore her shirt, exposing her breast as she grabbed at the lapels of his shirt.

"He rips the shirt off of him and wraps it around my neck and that's how I woke up the next morning," she said.

During previous days' testimony, Amber Heard said she knew she should leave Johnny Depp the first time he hit her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"I knew I couldn't just forgive him, right, because that means it will happen again. Like, I've seen the health class videos," Heard told the court through tears as she took the stand in Depp's libel lawsuit against her. "I was heartbroken."

Watch the video for some of the highlights from her earlier testimony.

Depp spent several days on the witness stand earlier in the trial, in which he acknowledged drug and alcohol use and sending texts with vulgar language about Heard, but denied the allegations of abuse. Watch the video for some of the highlights from his testimony.