Amber Heard describes the first time she says Johnny Depp hit her: 'I thought he was joking'

• Amber Heard began her testimony in court Wednesday.
• On the stand, Heard described the moment she said Johnny Depp became physically violent.

Amber Heard took the stand for the first time Wednesday in her ongoing defamation case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp — and described the moment she said he first became physically violent during their relationship.

During her testimony, Heard was asked by her lawyer whether she recalled the first time Depp struck her to which she promptly responded: "Yes."

"I was sitting on the couch and we were talking. We were having a normal conversation. There was no fighting, no argument, nothing, and he was drinking," Heard began, noting that she believed Depp was also using cocaine at the time because there "was a vintage jar of cocaine" on a table inside the house.

When Heard mentioned the jar, Depp could be seen in the Virginia courtroom turning to his lawyer and laughing.

Heard continued that she asked Depp about the contents of a tattoo that he has on his arm. Depp said the tattoo depicted the phrase "wino," Heard testified, at which point she said she laughed, thinking Depp was joking. In response, Heard testified, Depp slapped her "across the face."

Heard said she laughed because she was unsure what had just happened and thought Depp had been joking. She testified that Depp slapped her a second time and said: "You think it's so funny, bitch. You think you're a funny bitch."

The actress said at that moment, she realized that Depp had not been joking but she didn't react because she was unsure of how to respond. Heard said she stared at Depp and he slapped her across the face a third time, at which point she lost her balance.

"All of a sudden, I'm realizing the worst thing happened to me that can possibly happen to you and I wished so much that he said he was joking because it didn't hurt. He wasn't hurting me," she said of the moment. "But I was just sitting there on this carpet, looking at the dirty carpet, wondering how I wound up on this carpet and why I never noticed that the carpet was this filthy before."

Heard said after Depp first hit her, she knew she 'had to leave him and that's what broke my heart'

Heard continued on the stand Wednesday that she "didn't know what to do" or "what to say" because she didn't want the moment to be the reality of her relationship with Depp, whom she wed in 2015 before splitting the following year.

"I know you don't come back from that," she said. "I'm not dumb. I know you can't hit a woman. You can't hit a man. You can't hit anyone...I knew I had to leave him and that's what broke my heart because I didn't wanna leave him."

Heard added that she slowly pulled herself up to leave the room and looked at Depp at which point he started to cry.

"I've never seen an adult man cry. I didn't even really see my dad cry at my grandma's funeral. It's weird. And he's crying," Heard said of Depp. "He's crying, tears falling out of his eyes and he gets down on his knees and he grabs my hands and he's saying to me, 'I'll never do that again, I'm so sorry baby. I thought I put the monster away.'"

Heard said the moment — which she described as "seemingly so stupid and insignificant" — changed her life.

This is Heard's first day of testimony in the ongoing defamation case. Depp first filed a defamation suit against his ex-wife in response to an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 that detailed her experience with domestic violence. Depp's name wasn't mentioned, but the article was widely interpreted as being about him.

According to Depp's lawsuit, Heard fabricated an incident in which she accused Depp of beating her and had, in fact, verbally and physically assaulted him on numerous occasions.

Heard denied the claims and countersued for $100 million, alleging Depp physically beat her numerous times in their relationship, often while intoxicated on drugs and alcohol.

In her testimony Wednesday, Heard recounted other occasions where she says Depp abused her. They were often while Depp was in fits of rage and jealousy, falsely believing Heard was unfaithful, she said, as well as abusing cocaine and alcohol.

She described when Depp once performed what he terms a "cavity search" on her vagina while the two were in a trailer. He had just accused her of infidelity and apparently believed she took his cocaine, even though she said she doesn't use the drug.

"It made no sense. And he was telling me, 'We're gonna conduct a cavity search, shall we?'" Heard said. "Just shoved his fingers inside me. I just stood there staring at the stupid light. I didn't know what to do. I just stood there while he did that. He just twisted his fingers around."