Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Image Source: Sky News 

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard returned to the Fairfax County Court in Virginia for their ongoing defamation trial, which started after Johnny Depp sued ex-wife Amber Heard over an essay she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018.

On Monday, Amber Heard returned to the stand and continued with her testimony, where she said that the violence and abuse almost became normal for her, especially towards the end, and mentioned that at one instance, Johnny Depp punched her and put cigarettes out on her skin. Amber Heard told the jury that the former couple used "couch" as a safe word, signaling a truce between the couple.

As Amber Heard shared in 2015, Johnny Depp had quit drugs, and the couple returned to Australia, where they added that they had fallen in love again and were talking about the future, babies, and buying a farm. She shared during her testimony that things changed for her quickly and recalled Johnny Depp called her a liar and a whore for even considering doing a project with James Franco. He had issues with Amber filming sex scenes and was very unhappy that she had appeared in the film ‘London Fields'. She had a sex scene in it in which her body was double shot but shared that when Johnny Depp saw the scene, he slapped her and punched her across the jaw.

Amber Heard shared that during their fights, Johnny Depp would cut himself, draw blood, and sometimes put cigarettes out on himself or flick them at her. Starting from the trial, there have been questions about why the former couple started recording each other without permission, to which Amber Heard said that their relationship had gone to do that as a habit as their relationship unraveled. During one of the audio clips that were played, Johnny Depp can be heard yelling at her, stating that she is not a fucking school teacher or anyone’s mom, before adding that you don’t exist.

Amber Heard’s infamous 30th birthday party was also brought up and she said that the actor would disappear for days on suspected drug benders in the name of doing work, and when he failed to show up for her birthday dinner, she was upset and when he returned home, the former couple had a verbal argument which escalated into physical and, according to Amber Heard, Johnny Depp blocked the exit of the bedroom, barring her from leaving. Amber Heard said that Johnny Depp grabbed a magnum bottle of champagne and threw it at her, but it went through a painting she loved.

Amber continued that their fight continued the next day as well, and Johnny Depp tossed her cellphone out of the window and she did the same with his. She talked more about her birthday dinner altercation with Johnny, saying that he grabbed her by the hair and used her body to knock items off the table, tried to chest bump her, and later allegedly grabbed her pubic bone. The actress mentioned that she was exhausted and tired and was crying, so she used the word couch to make the actor stop, to which he told her that she got what she deserved and that no one would love her and she should better get used to waking up alone and left the house that night while screaming Happy Fucking Birthday!

Amber Heard showed a couple of pictures in the courtroom in which she said that they were taken after Johnny Depp threw his phone at her in May 2016 and mentioned that she reunited with him during the time Johnny Depp’s mother passed away and when they met he was talking about feces during the meeting and then she called her friend author and LGBTQ activist iO Tillet Wright, who asked her to get out of the house because she was not safe. Amber further mentioned that Johnny Depp was angry when he heard her friend on the phone and hit her around the eyes. He dragged her off the couch and yanked her hair back while mocking her, but her friend (Rocky Pennington) stopped him.

There were a couple of more pictures shown in the courthouse which showcased the entire house being trashed and all the pictures were taken when police were called post the phone throwing incident, but she did not name Johnny Depp because she did not want them to arrest him and she refused to cooperate. A text message was read in which Johnny called Amber Heard shameless for allowing her friend to work out of the penthouse and brought up the idea of getting a divorce. The actress said that she decided to file for divorce in May 2016 despite him assuring her that he was sober because she had tried to make the relationship work but it was falling apart and she knew she had to leave him to survive.

Amber Heard alleged that Johnny Depp mounted a smear campaign against her to ruin her career and reputation and she had begged him to stop with the smear campaign, as she did not want to deal with this anymore. Talking about the op-ed, she said that everything written in that essay is true and clarified that it was not about Johnny Depp, but added that it was not about him but what had happened to her.

Amber Heard said that she tried to keep the details of their cynical marriage out of the public eye and protected him, but he did the opposite. The actress testified that her scenes in the upcoming film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom were cut and that she will have less than 10 minutes of screen time. She said that the public feud with her ex-husband is humiliating for her and feels like torture to her before adding that she just wants him to leave her alone and move on in her life, but he won’t let her. At one point she also clarified the infamous fecal matter in the court stating that it was their dog who had a problem with bathroom habits was on the bed when Rocky and she were packing for Coachella where she agreed to have taken MDMA and Mushrooms.