[imagesource: Kevin Winter / Getty Images]
In happier times, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were one of Hollywood’s power couples, meeting in 2009 on the set of The Rum Diaries and marrying in 2015.
Those days are long, long gone and the last few years have seen allegations and counter-allegations by both parties.
We knew the $50 million libel case Depp brought against Heard would be messy, but it’s already been dubbed the ‘soap opera’ trial.
Before we get into what happened on day one, let’s get a little background. In late 2018, Heard wrote an opinion piece that was published in The Washington Post.
In the piece, she described her experience as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. More via the BBC:
“I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she wrote. “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
She did not mention her ex-husband or any other alleged perpetrator by name.
But according to Depp’s complaint, these three sentences amount to defamation anyway, derailing his career and “incalculably” damaging his reputation.
The trial is taking place in Virginia, which is where The Washington Post is physically published, kicked off yesterday, and is slated to take six weeks.
Judging by day one inside the Fairfax County Courthouse, we are in for a serious battle. Lawyers for both sides gave their opening arguments, and Depp’s sister Christi Dembrowski was the first witness to take the stand.
This via Sky News:
Lawyers for Depp told the jury the actor will “go to his grave knowing that whatever he does there will always be people who believe he abused a woman”.
They say Heard is a liar, who “took on the role of a lifetime and couldn’t back down”.
Heard’s lawyers told the court that Depp has brought the lawsuit “rather than take responsibility for his own actions”, and will turn the trial into a “soap opera”.
They say the actress never wanted to “offer up to the public who Johnny Depp was – but that is going to come out”.
Dembrowski spoke about their happy childhood together and the strong bond between Depp and his ex, Vanessa Paradis.
The opening statements from both sides are summarised in this video:
The entirely of yesterday’s proceedings were broadcast live if you really want to get into it:
For the most graphic description of the allegations made yesterday, we head to The Daily Mail.
A warning that there are descriptions of sexual assault below:
Amber Heard’s attorneys have claimed Johnny Depp penetrated her with an alcohol bottle in a heated three-day ‘hostage situation’ in Australia in 2015.
Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft told the jury in Depp’s $50 million defamation trial Tuesday, ‘He has her jammed up against the bar. He has hurled bottles and bottles at her. He has dragged her across the floor on the broken bottles. He has punched her. He has kicked her. He has told her he’s going to fu**ing kill her, and he fu**ing hates her. He’s pounding at her, pounding at her. And then, he penetrates her with a liquor bottle.’
As she spoke Depp shook his head as if to say: ‘No.’
In response, Depp’s team stated that Heard had first pursued and ‘wooed’ the actor before she turned abusive:
Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez said in opening statements, ‘Miss Heard is a profoundly troubled person who manipulates the people around her…She would resort to physical violence, throwing things at him, hitting him, she would tell him he was a coward, he wasn’t man enough because he wouldn’t stay and fight with her.’
…Vasquez said that Depp’s friends saw ‘red flags all over the place’ and over time ‘the real miss Heard began to emerge.’
There is a blow-by-blow, allegation and counter-allegation, breakdown of day one here.
You’ll also find multiple live streams on YouTube once day two begins. CourtTV will also have a stream.
Six weeks of this is going to be intense.
