When he asked Heard what happened on Sunday, she replied have you ever been so angry with someone that you “lost it?” He said she went into little detail otherwise. King also observed long, thin marks on both of Heard’s forearms.
King remained in LA for less than week, then returned to Australia where he was “pretty much putting the house back together.” King took photos of the damage for “reference” during clean-up.
When Depp and Heard returned to Australia, their interactions were again “initially pleasant, honeymoon-like,” King recalled. However, “many” more arguments followed, King said, though he didn’t see Heard being violent “per se.”
King will be subject to recall.
Depp and Heard were staying at the residence on the Gold Coast where Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean in 2015. One of Depp’s assistants called King to the home on Sunday, March 8, he arrived around 2, 2:30 p.m. Upon walking inside, he recalls Amber Heard “hysterical, crying a lot, uncontrollably,” he said on the stand Monday.
King found Depp’s doctor David Kipper in the kitchen searching through a bin. Kipper said Depp’s had an injury and he was looking for a “severed” fingertip. King began to aid in the search. He walked downstairs, where he found extensive damage. He detailed damage to the marble staircase and bar top, a broken ping pong table collapsed on the floor and glass and cans strewn across the room. He said there were drips of blood across the floor and bar. He also found puddles of what smelled like alcohol, several drinking glasses a vodka bottle along with wall damage and the mirror behind the bar smashed.
“Nothing was really in tact,” King recalled.
King noticed “kitchen paper” with “lots of blood” in the bar area, Depp’s fingertip was inside. He took to it upstairs to alert Dr. Kipper, placed it in a bag and on ice. Dr. Kipper was “keen” to get the fingertip to the hospital quickly to see if it could be reattached.
King then went to observe the rest of the residence, cleaning was among his duties. He describes blood and damage across the home. There were broken glasses and soda cans on the kitchen floor and blood on cushions. The TV was cracked with “remnants of a coffee cup” and coffee splattered on the floor and wall. The art studio floor was covered with paint and blood.
There was also blood across the floor in the master bedroom, writing on the sinks in the master bathroom, he said. The other two bedrooms on that third floor had blood on duvet covers, broken lamps and Depp’s guitar was “blood-stained.”
Ben King managed properties overseas where Heard and Johnny Depp stayed as he filmed in London and Australia. King first managed a London property in 2014 where the couple lived for about a month.
He said Depp and Heard were initially “loving” towards each other in London, he recalled Depp taking care of Heard, seeing him pour her wine. As part of his duties of preparing the residence daily, King was responsible for stocking alcohol. Heard drank “one to two bottles” of red wine daily, he said, and did not observe Depp drinking wine.
King witnessed “several” arguments between the two during their month-long stay, particularly in the evenings. He described one where Depp and Heard were going to dinner, he heard shouting upstairs followed by loud footsteps and more shouting that went on for some time. He wasn’t able to share the context of the fight, but said the two did eventually leave.
In a second instance, Depp and Heard got into an argument in the tv room.
“Why’d you take your hand away from me, Johnny?” King overheard Heard asking Depp, adding her tone was “not playful.” “Don’t you love me anymore?”
Depp replied “of course I do, don’t be silly,” King recalled.
King described Heard’s tone as an accusatory, like a “spoiled teenage child.” King said he did not observe any physical violence or injuries to either during the duration of their stay.
King worked for the couple the following year in Australia, beginning in February of 2015. He recalls similar situations to London, the couple initially seemed “pleasant” toward each other. They stayed longer in Australia, and subsequently argued more, he said. He described one instance that again started in the tv room, Depp left the room and Heard followed. He said Heard continued to drink a bottle or two of red wine daily.
Depp said in court this audio was after the world media was trying to “bombard” him.
“I don’t know how to get my reputation back,” Heard said.
Depp said they should write a letter that they should take their issues out of the public eye and work it out on their own.
He added that they should say the media created a “hateful storm” and that they love each other and want to “make sure each other is okay.”
Depp said they have to deal with the “abuse thing” but Heard said she was worried about her credibility.
Depp asked why she “put that out there” and Heard said he forced her to.
“You forced me, your team forced me to by going on the offence,” she said, adding that she “didn’t choose this.”
Depp said he didn’t force her.
Heard said she did not call the cops and did not give a statement when they came in order to protect Depp. Depp said she told “IO” to call the police.
Heard then said she feared for her life and that Depp might kill her by accident.
Depp said he lost a finger during a fight and had a bottle of mineral spirits thrown at his nose.
Heard then tells Depp he can tell people it was a “fair fight” and “see what the jury and judge think”
“Tell the world, Johnny. Tell them ‘I Johnny Depp … am a victim of domestic violence’ … and see how many people believe or side with you,” Heard told Depp in the recording.
When his lawyer asked Depp what he said in response to what Heard said about him being a victim of domestic abuse, Depp said he responded “yes, I am.”
Depp then concluded his testimony and left the stand.
He said Heard brought to her San Francisco under false pretenses and “didn’t know what she was after,”
On the stand, Depp said he took out a knife and asked Heard to cut him and take his blood.
“You’ve taken everything,” he told her. “You want my blood? Take it.”
Depp added that if she wasn’t going to do it, “I would have done it” because that was where he was psychologically.
Depp said he was “at the end” and “broken.”
“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” he added.
He said he was dealing with “arrows from all over the world.” Now, he said he wanted Heard to cut him and take his blood because it was “all I’ve got left to give you.”
Depp said there was no threat to Heard with the knife.
“It was about spilling my blood,” he said. “The only thing she didn’t have at that point.”
Depp said that if “things get heated and it looks like it’s going somewhere nasty and the name-calling begins” he has to “get away.”
“I don’t ever want to be in a situation like that ever,” Depp said. “Don’t freak out if we get in a fight and I walk away.”
Heard said she “won’t do that.”
Depp said they should take some time to think and be apart.
“I’m not going to stay and fight with you,” he said. “I will not do it again.”
In another audio clip, Depp is trying to leave during an argument with Heard.
Heard said it causes her stress when Depp walks away from her.
“Please you’re making it worse for me,” she said. “You’re causing me immense stress when you walk away like that.”
Depp said Heard won’t let him “f–king leave. "
Heard responds, asking him to stop “rushing” her.
“Stop pushing me in a corner and then poking me with a stick,” Heard said.
Depp said he needs space.
“I will take me space whether you like it or not. And you will take your space,” he said.
Heard is begging Depp to stay but Depp kept saying he needed to leave.
In court, Depp said Heard was demanding things go her way, and her way only.
Depp said in that audio, he “wanted out” and would not be a “parrot or little dog.” He said Heard told him to take his wedding ring off but would not let him leave.
“It’s another example of being nailed in one spot, not being allowed to do anything but react to her screaming,” Depp said, adding he was “Screaming like a Banshee” but telling him to calm down.
In the audio, Depp asks Heard if she wanted to smack him in the ear. On the stand, Depp said Heard had “given him a good chop in the ear,” the kind that “leaves you ringing,” not long before this argument.
Depp said he asked Heard if she wanted to hit him again because he thought it would maybe make her happy, or feel better, or stop.
“I would have done anything to stop it, outside taking anything to a physical level,” he said.
The audio begins with Heard repeatedly saying “couch” and ends with her yelling, “by the way you just threw a f-king cigarette on me.”
Depp recalled that conversation from the stand, saying it seemed “pretty clear” that she [Heard] was ordering me to the couch. There’s “no way under the sun” that I would flick a cigarette at her or burn her, Depp said, and if he had, wouldn’t Heard be “screaming out” in pain?” he questioned. “That’s ludicrous.”
Depp also said there were “many” instances where Heard would “upset, angry argumentative and violent” in Australia.
In a text message to a Dr. Kipper, Depp wrote “I cut the top of my middle finger off.” Depp testified earlier that his fingertip came off when Heard threw a glass bottle at him.
Depp said he uses humor as a way to deal with pain. In the text exchange, Depp said he wrote that he cut his left finger off to remind him not to cut his right finger off. He added that that wording does not mean he cut his finger off himself.
Depp said he would have never cut his own fingers tips off because it would prevent him from playing the guitar, an activity he said was his “first love” besides his children.
He said learning to play guitar at the age of 12 was a way to “escape into music.”
“Why ruin only thing good in life, besides children?” he said.
Depp said there is no reason why he would cut his own finger off to “ruin this beautiful opportunity” he had at a young age to learn how to play the guitar.
He also said he was thankful the injury was not on his left hand. If he had lost a finger from his left hand, Depp said he would have had to relearn how to play the guitar all over again.
“Saying ‘I chopped finger off’ is like saying I bumped into a knife,” Depp said. “I was not admitting. If I was admitting, this text would not have been as it is, it would have been a long explanation. I can’t take responsibly for chopped finger.”
He said that Dr. Kipper and others around him knew about the true nature of his injury the day that it happened.
At the time, however, the story was that Depp smashed his finger in a door. Depp said went with this story publicly because he did not want stories out in the press about Heard throwing a bottle at him.
He said he went to the Emergency Room and a hand specialist after the injury who recognized that story in the press was “an excuse.”
In the text, Judge said he was glad to see Depp and Heard “are so happy.” Depp responded that all he had to do was “send the monster away and lock him up.”
In court, Depp said the phrase “the monster” was a “go-to” for Heard.
He said the monster refers to different things, one of which was his sobriety.
“I was trying to be sober because I was plagued by requests to stop drinking, Depp said.
Depp talked about the “monster” earlier in the trial when he was cross examined by the defense about his substance abuse.
He said the “monster” could also refer to who he became during arguments with Heard.
When a conversation would “ramp up to an antagonizing argument,” Depp said if her responded to Heard and took part on the back-and-forth of obscenities and name-calling, the monster was “the guy who actually was dumb enough to continue to take part in arguments that would ultimately go nowhere.”
When this happened, Depp said he tried to get away from Heard and her constant, “painful” insults.
He said he would try to walk away, go into another room or even lock himself into other rooms.
“I should have never fallen for that or taken the bait to allow myself to get into conversation that led to argument that led to physical violence,” he said.
Depp said he let the monster “creep back in” when he failed in his sobriety.
He said he was disappointed in himself for not staying sober but needed to feel “numb” amid the harassment he felt from Heard.
“In a position to be constantly harassed by a beloved other, what else could I do?” he said. “I wanted to be numb. I didn’t want to hear it or feel it from the one who professed such love for me but gave me mostly hatred.”
In reference to his character Jack Sparrow, Depp said he built the character “from the ground up.” He said he put a lot of himself into the character and rewrote much of the jokes and dialogue in the script.
He added that he could not understand how, after a long and successful relationship with Disney, that he was “suddenly guilty until proven innocent.”
Depp added that he intended to take part in the sixth Pirates movie and continue working within the franchise “until it was time to stop.”
“My feeling was these characters should have proper goodbye as it were,” he said. “A franchise can only last for so long. There is way to end franchise. Characters deserve to have a way out, to end a franchise on a very good note.”
The text exchange between Depp and Bettany from 2013 starts with Depp saying in part, “let’s burn Amber.” Bettany responds saying “I’m not sure she’s a witch,” and suggests a drowning test. “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!!” Depp replies in part.
Depp says none of it was “ever intended to be real,” and the messages are directly from Monty Python in a sketch about burning witches.
“This is a film we’d all watched when we were 10 and it’s just irreverent and abstract humor,” Depp said on the stand Monday. “That’s what we were referring to in those texts.”
Depp called Heard and Bettany’s relationship “abominable.” Heard despised Bettany mainly because Depp and Bettany had become “such close friends,” Depp said. He claimed that Heard viewed Bettany as a “threat,” and if Bettany got his attention instead, it was a “showstopper” between Depp and Heard.
“It would cause all kinds of unpleasantries,” Depp said on the stand Monday.
Depp recalled a trip he, Heard and Bettany’s family took on an island. During lunch one day, Bettany and Heard got into a “debate.” When Bettany tried to make a point, Heard would “talk over him” and it became “quite rude,” Depp said, as Heard got “mean” and “loud.” Bettany’s 18-year-old son interjected in their conversation and Heard “demeaned” him to the point he “burst into tears.” Depp told Heard it would be best to leave the island.
Jessica Meyers asked Depp how he felt after reading Amber Heard’s op-ed, with the headline “Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence - and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
Depp said he felt shock.
“At this point it had been two years of accusations, allegations planted firmly on my back,” he said. “It was something I carried with me. I couldn’t believe it was continuing in such a way.”
He said the more he got bad press, the more of these stories of Heard and her “righteous chase against him” would come.
“It wasn’t stopping,” he said, adding that the accusations were “completely untrue.”
Depp continued that he was hurt by the op-ed.
“It was a blinding hurt,” he said. “It was like someone hit me in the back of the head with a 2x4.”
Depp said he had no opportunity to speak about these accusations prior to this op-ed.
“Even if I did an interview to explain myself, it turned into a hit piece,” he said. “My mouth was shut.”
He added that “something had to be done” because he “couldn’t take it anymore.”
Depp says yes, it began with Heard going to court with a “bruise on her face” in 2016 that got the “ball rolling down the hill and gaining momentum.” Rottenborn followed-up, asking if there had been “plenty” of negative news stories about Depp prior to that day in 2016. Depp answered “of course,” as he’s been in the “racket” of Hollywood since 1984.
Rottenborn pointed to Depp’s previous comments that Heard’s accusations negatively impacted his career, as Depp said he “lost nothing less everything.” On the stand Monday, Depp said that was correct.
Rottenborn then began reading a series of headlines from numerous publications criticizing Depp for his behavior and drinking among other allegations. Depp called it a “pathetic attempt.”
Rottenborn also showed jurors a text message Depp sent to Heard’s mother in August of 2014 when he was detoxing from Oxycodone. He praised Heard for supporting him.
“I don’t need to explain the horrors to you,” Depp wrote to her mother. “Your daughter has risen far above the nightmarish task of taking care of this poor old junkie. Never a second has gone by that she didn’t look out for me or have her eyes on me to make sure that I was ok.”
Rottenborn asked if anyone had a problem with his drinking besides Heard.
“If anyone had a problem with my drinking, it was me,” Depp responded. “The only person I’ve ever abused in my life is me.”
Rottenborn then said Depp tried to hide his drinking from his daughter, Lily-Rose Depp.
Depp’s lawyer objected to this.
A text message from Depp to Kevin Murphy, Depp’s former assistant, was then presented.
“Lily-Rose hates me because she thinks I’m drinking and she’s right,” Depp wrote. “But I can’t admit, or I f–king die in her eyes.”
“I cannot live like this,” Depp wrote. “The constant insult, the demeaning, belittling, most heartbreaking spew that is only released from a malicious, evil, vindictive c–t.”
Depp wrote that he was hurt by Heard’s “hideous tirades” and “shocking treatment of the man she was meant to love above all.”
Depp adds that Heard’s “obsession with herself” is far more important than her love for him.
“She is so f–kin’ ambitious,” he wrote. “She’s so desperate for success and fame. That’s probably why I was acquired.”
When asked if he was complaining about Heard’s ambition, Depp said in court that he realized her ambition was stronger than her supposed feelings for him.
Rottenborn than points to a part of the text to the doctor about his finger injury.
In the message, Depp wrote that “I cut the top of my middle finger off,” referring to an incident he testified to earlier that Heard threw a bottle at him, cutting off the tip of his finger.
Rottenborn asks if Depp’s message suggest he cut his finger, thus contradicting his earlier testimony.
Depp said that was “just the way it was worded.”
“It doesn’t meant that I literally cut the tip of my finger off,” he said.
Rottenborn suggests Depp did not want Heard to take meetings about possible movie roles.
Depp responded that it seemed like he and Heard had some type of agreement to do something together. He said he was inquiring about the “species of the meeting” to find out why Heard had deviated from their plan.
“This is not necessarily an angry text,” Depp said. “It’s just, ‘Why do you deviate from our agreement [of meeting up]?’
Rottenborn asked if Depp did not want Heard acting, but Depp denied that assertion.
Depp said it was “it’s not about films,” adding “how do you think she got Aquaman?”
Heard starred in the 2018 D.C. superhero film “Aquaman” alongside Jason Momoa.
In the first, Heard is heard saying “go put your f–king cigarettes out on someone else, you f–king have consequences for your actions!” Depp replies “shut up fat a–.”
On the stand, Depp called the recording a “grossly exaggerated moment” and denied putting a cigarette out on Heard.
In another, Depp tells Heard that walking away is “necessary.” “I’m not asking you to have a bloodbath walking away,” she replies, asking Depp to “work it out.”
Rottenborn tells Depp that audio wasn’t the first time he referred to an argument as a bloodbath. The dates and locations of the recordings were not disclosed.
In separate texts from 2014 and 2016, Depp tells Heard she will “hit the wall hard,” and in another says he hopes karma kicks in takes breath “away from her.” Depp tells Rottenborn that he read the messages correctly.
In another audio, Heard says she is trying to help Depp, he replies it’s “not helping you stupid f–k.” Rottenborn asks Depp if he heard Heard telling him to “get off” of her in the audio, he says no, he heard distant screaming.
In one text to his security guard, Depp says he feels like he’s going to “puke” all the time, once he gets out of her [Heard’s] “level of s–t,” he will never mention “this c–t’s name again.” He then threatens the next “prick” who asks about Heard, saying they will get a warning, then promised to bite off their nose.
Some texts were not presented to court, as Depp’s attorney objected on the basis of relevance.
