Johnny Depp Addresses Death Threats He Allegedly Wrote About Amber Heard
Johnny Depp was on the stand during his lawsuit against Amber Heard on Tuesday and some details came out about death threats
With the lawsuit Johnny Depp filed against Amber Heard now underway and witnesses being called to the stand, all kinds of information (some pretty dark) has been coming to the forefront about the time these two spent married together. It’s been an ugly state of affairs from the beginning with more and more being dredged up as the two sides litigate not only the relationship but also the events leading up to the Washington Post Op-ed by Amber Heard that is at the center of all of this. During testimony on Tuesday, Johnny Depp took the stand to address threats he had allegedly made against Heard during their time together.
While on the stand during the trial, Johnny Depp was asked about texts he had written to actor Paul Bettany and to Amber Heard herself, ones that were considered to be threatening. As part of his testimony, Johnny Depp worked to describe the situation he was in and how he was communicating. According to Deadline and court transcripts, Johnny Depp said, “In my texts, in my emails, and my writings you take the subject itself and you try to express it in your own vernacular…”
This was apparently in reference to messages he sent that are going to be presented in court on Wednesday for the next round of the trial. In an effort to get out ahead of them being further discussed, it appears Johnny Depp is trying to allude to the idea that any threats he made were more part of just his communication process rather than being something he was actually going to act on.
The texts by Johnny Depp include a reference he made to Amber Heard as a “rotting corpse” in a message he had with Paul Bettany. Additionally, there was a reference to these texts read near the beginning of the trial that alluded to Amber Heard’s body being placed in the trunk of a car.
During the trial on Tuesday, Johnny Depp went on to describe these texts or at least try to explain why he used the language he did at the time. The actor said, “I am ashamed of some of the references made and embarrassed at the tone that in the heat of the moment…Sometimes pain has to be dealt with humor, and sometimes dark very dark humor…”
It will be interesting to see how these explanations, such as they are, from Johnny Depp, are met in the court of law. There is sure to be more context added to the communications on Wednesday when Depp is cross-examined by Amber Heard’s lawyers. And then there will be the testimony of Paul Bettany, who could be called as a witness in this trial. He could provide significantly more background about the communications or lend credence to the part that these were merely a bout of dark humor and not actual threats. It could go in a couple of different ways.
Johnny Depp is suing Amber Heard for $50 million dollars in a defamation suit following Heard penning an op-ed in the Washington Post a few years ago that detailed domestic abuse. Johnny Depp was not named in the article, but he’s contending it was clearly about him, hence the libel piece. Some of this was already litigated in a suit Depp brought against the British tabloid The Sun back in 2020, accusing them also of libel following the publication using the term “wife-beater” to describe the actor. Depp lost that lawsuit.
