'Johnny promised he'd ruin me,' testifies Amber Heard
What's the story
The testimonies came to an end in the long-running trial between ex-spouses Amber Heard and Johnny Depp on Thursday. After Depp, Heard took the stand for a second time to testify how her ex-husband threatened to ruin her life if she ever wanted to leave him. With tears in her eyes, she also spoke about the hundreds of death threats she has received.
Context
Why does this story matter?
The celebrity couple is engaged in a defamation trial. After an ugly divorce in 2016, things got murkier between them when Heard wrote an op-ed piece in 2018 detailing her experience of domestic abuse. Although Depp wasn't mentioned in the article, he filed a $50M suit against Heard in 2019. Later, Heard filed a $100M countersuit. The case is set to conclude on Friday.
Testimony
'Johnny threatened that if I ever left him, he would...'
The 36-year-old actor said, "Johnny threatened—promised me—that if I ever left him, he would make me think of him every single day that I lived." Saying the Pirates of the Caribbean actor had promised her "global humiliation," Heard added he had promised to "ruin my career and take my life from me." She told the jury she just wants "Johnny to leave me alone."
Threats
'People want to kill me, and they tell me that'
"I am harassed, humiliated, threatened every single day," said the Aquaman actor, describing the "pain" she has been suffering over the course of the live-televised trial. Calling the ongoing case "daily torture," Heard also spoke about death threats. "People want to kill me, and they tell me so every day. People want to put my baby in the microwave, and they tell me that."
Information
On Wednesday, Depp termed allegations against him 'insane'
Before this, on Wednesday, Depp had testified for the last time, calling all allegations leveled against him "insane." "I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse, all these outlandish, outrageous stories of me committing these things." Also, a text message from 2016 written by the 58-year-old was read aloud in the court on Wednesday.
Looking back
Depp's abusive text messages targeting Heard were read aloud
Following their messy divorce, Heard had gotten a domestic violence restraining order against Depp in May 2016. Calling Heard a "gold-digger," Depp wrote she was "begging for total global humiliation" in the text from August 2016. "I'm so f***ing happy she wants to fight this out!!! She will hit the wall hard!!!" he wrote. Notably, these texts were submitted as evidence by Heard's team.