A lawyer who represented Amber Heard during prenup negotiations said Johnny Depp phoned her up apparently drunk, called her a 'b----,' and tried to fire her

• Johnny Depp called Amber Heard's lawyer negotiating her side of a postnuptial agreement a "bitch," that lawyer testified.
• He was slurring his speech and appeared to be drunk, she said.

An attorney who previously represented Amber Heard during pre and postnuptial negotiations with Johnny Depp said that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor phoned her in the middle of the negotiation process and called her a "bitch."

Michelle Mulroney, the lawyer, offered testimony for Depp's ongoing defamation trial against Heard in a video deposition on March 1, 2021. Portions of the deposition were shown to jurors in the Fairfax County, Virginia court on Thursday.

Depp joined the call with his attorneys, Mulroney said, and told her to step away from the negotiations, using the sexist insult.

"My recollection is that he was very mean, he called me names, and that he fired me on behalf of Amber," Mulroney said. "My only exact recollection is that he called me a bitch."

Mulroney testified she was "extremely rattled by the call" and that she hung up after Depp continued the tirade for two or three minutes. He appeared to be drunk during the call, she said.

"I thought he was under the influence," she said. "He was slurring his words."

Mulroney said she first received details from Depp's lawyer about a possible prenuptial agreement between Depp and Heard on February 3, 2015.

The couple wed less than a week after that, without an agreement being signed, turning the prenuptial negotiations into postnuptial negotiations.

On February 18, Mulroney said, she asked Depp's team to provide the underlying agreement for all of his movies and TV shows so she could get a full understanding of the backend profits Depp would be making every year from his previous projects. It was sometime after this that the call took place, Mulroney said.

In cross-examination, Mulroney clarified that Depp never had the power to fire her. But feeling "shook up" after the call, she said, she dropped Heard as a client and was no longer involved in negotiating her agreement with Depp.

Mulroney gave her testimony for a lawsuit Depp brought against Heard in March 2019, alleging she defamed him by describing herself as a victim of domestic violence in a December 2018 Washington Post op-ed. Heard is defending herself and countersued, alleging Depp physically abused her before and throughout their marriage. Heard filed for divorce in May of 2016, and it was finalized in January the following year.

It's not clear what, precisely, were the terms being negotiated in the postnuptial agreement. Depp testified earlier that the fateful fight in which he lost the tip of his right middle finger, in March of 2015, took place as Heard was furious about the contract's terms. Heard called him a "pussy" and was "irate" and "possessed," Depp said.

Heard, in her own trial testimony, gave a different recounting of events, saying Depp cut off his own finger and sexually abused her while under the influence of drugs.

Upon their divorce, Heard received $7 million, which she pledged to charities. A financial manager for Depp testified earlier that his liabilities were closer to $14 million because of unresolved tax issues and bills for jointly owned properties that he was on the hook for. Heard has not paid her promised $7 million in donations in full, but testified that she still plans to and hasn't been able to yet because of Depp's lawsuit.