Amber Heard got emotional in court on Wednesday, as she described the first time her ex-husband Johnny Depp allegedly hit her.
The actress took the witness stand for the first time in the defamation trial, and told the jury that Johnny physically abused her multiple times during their relationship.
Speaking at Fairfax County District Court in Virginia, Amber said the early days of their romance was “a beautiful and strange time” before things allegedly turned violent.
The Aquaman star brought up an alleged incident in 2013, which she said “changed her life.”
Amber claimed Johnny slapped her after she asked him to explain a “muddled, faded” tattoo that read “Wino”.
“He said it said ‘Wino’. I thought he was joking and laughed, it was that simple, I laughed as I thought he was joking and he slapped me across the face and I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. I thought this must be a joke,” she explained.
“I didn’t know what was going on. I just stared at him kind of just laughing still, thinking he would start laughing to tell me it was a joke.”
“He said ‘You think it’s funny b***h, you think you’re a funny b***h?’ and he slapped me again and it was clear it was not a joke anymore.”
“I as a woman and never been hit like that. He slapped me for no reason it seems like and I missed the point. I just stared at him, I didn’t react or move or freak out or defend myself, I just stared at him, he slapped me one more time, hard.”
“I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know how to react, ‘God did he just hit me?’ I didn’t want this to be the reality, I know you don’t come back for that, you can’t hit a woman or a man or anyone, you can’t just hit someone.”
“I knew it was wrong and I knew I had to leave him and it broke my heart as I did not want to leave him.”
Amber said she decided to stay with Johnny after the alleged incident because he apologised and promised to never behave that way again.
However, Amber claimed Johnny was violent on multiple occasions during their relationship, usually when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
“This happened several times,” she told the court.
Earlier in the trial, Johnny testified that he never hit his ex-wife, and claimed that she was the abuser in their relationship.
The 58-year-old said the allegations he was a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women” have cost him “everything”.
The actor launched a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While his name was excluded from the piece, Johnny’s legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her.”
Amber has countersued Johnny, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
Back in November 2020, Johnny lost his highly publicised UK libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.”
The court upheld that the tabloid’s claims were “substantially true,” and Amber testified to back up the claims.
In March 2021, his attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.
However, in this case, he is suing Amber directly.
The former couple are currently squaring off at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia, and the trial is expected to last until late May.
Johnny and Amber met in 2009 on the set of the film The Rum Diary, and were married in February 2015.
Their divorce was finalised two years later.
