Johnny Depp saysAmber Heard threw a bottle of vodka at him, which severed one of his fingers.- Depp made the comment during his second day of testimony at his defamation trial against Heard.
Johnny Depp says his ex-wife Amber Heard threw a vodka bottle at him which shattered and severed his finger during an argument sparked by his trying to get her to agree to sign a post-nuptial agreement.
Depp testified about the fight as he took the stand for a second day in his defamation trial against Heard. Depp has accused Heard of ruining his reputation and career with false domestic violence allegations. Heard countersued, saying Depp physically assaulted her on multiple occasions before and during their marriage, which ended in divorce in 2016.
Depp says the fight in which his finger was severed happened about a month after his wedding to Heard, when she flew out to Australia to visit him as he filmed the fifth installment of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.
Depp says he and Heard didn't have a pre-nuptial agreement because the idea had led to arguments leading up to their marriage. And eventually it became "too late," he said.
Eventually, he says the idea of a post-nuptial agreement was brought up, and he asked his lawyers to have a meeting with Heard so that they could explain to her how such an agreement works.
Sent 'into a tailspin'
Depp wasn't present for the meeting, but says Heard arrived in Australia "very upset" about how the meeting had been conducted, feeling that one of the lawyers she met with had been "rude and dismissive."
The meeting "sent her into a tailspin, it sunk very deep into her psyche," Depp said.
"She was irate and she was possessed, and when I tried to remove myself as I normally would from the situation, she's hammering me with brutal words," Depp recalled.
"It wasn't nice, being called an ass kisser to lawyers or a pussy. That I didn't fight for her or stand up for her," he said.
"What really surprised me was that she kept saying, 'I'm not even in your will,'" Depp recalled. "I thought that was an odd thing to say, especially since I don't think anyone had time to change wills or anything of that nature."
Depp said he was staying in a large house in Australia, and remembers locking himself in "at least nine bedrooms and bathrooms" that day "as she was banging on the doors and screaming obscenities and wanting to have a physical altercation."
At that point, Depp claims he had been sober from drinking for some time, but he says the stress of the situation caused him to go to the bar in the house and pour himself a few shots of vodka.
He says Heard followed him to the bar and started yelling at him for drinking again, and proceeded to throw the bottle of vodka at him. He says the bottle flew past his face and smashed on the ground behind him.
Depp says he then went back to the bar, picked up a larger bottle of vodka, and continued to pour himself another drink.
He says Heard picked up the second bottle and threw it at him, and that time it made contact with his hand, slicing off his middle right finger.
"It made contact and it shattered everywhere," he said. "I honestly didn't feel the pain at first, what I felt was heat and I felt as if something were dripping down my hand. Then I looked down and realized that the tip of my finger had been severed and I was looking directly at my bones sticking out and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger."
Heard's side of the story
Heard told a much different story in her response to Depp's lawsuit, saying they initially got into a fight when she witnessed Depp take out a bag of MDMA, even though he was "supposed to be clean at the time."
"The argument heated up, and Johnny pushed me, slapped me, and shoved me to the ground before I retreated to a locked bedroom and went to sleep," Heard wrote in the statement.
She says they continued to fight at the house for three days, and accused Depp of shoving her into a ping pong table, grabbing her hair, choking her, and throwing objects and alcohol at her.
"In one of the most horrific and scariest moments of the three-day ordeal, Johnny grabbed me by the neck and collarbone and slammed me against the countertop. I struggled to stand up as he strangled me, but my arms and feet kept slipping and sliding on the spilled alcohol and were dragged against the broken glass on the countertop and floor, which repeatedly slashed my feet and arms," Heard wrote.
Heard says Depp cut his finger himself by "slamming a hard plastic phone against the wall."
"I did not throw a vodka bottle — or any other kind of bottle — at Johnny, not did I cause that injury to Johnny's finger," she wrote.
Earlier in the trial, the former couple's marriage counselor testified that she believed the two participated in "mutual abuse."
Therapist Laurel Anderson said she never personally witnessed physical abuse but said Heard showed up to solo sessions with bruises on her face and that Heard herself admitted to starting physical fights with Depp.