Johnny Depp’s lawyers claimed Amber Heard has taken his ‘ability to walk down the street without people thinking he is an abuser’ in their opening statement.
Depp’s $50 million (£38.2 million) defamation lawsuit began on Monday (11 April), with opening statements getting underway today.
After divorcing in 2017, the pair's marriage has been marred with accusations of abuse.
Now, the 58-year-old actor is suing his ex-wife over an op-ed in The Washington Post where she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse. Heard has come with a counterclaim against Depp worth $100 million.
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Depp’s lawyers’ opening statement was dominated by claims that Heard has damaged his career beyond repair.
They said his reputation has been ‘forever changed’, as ‘a false allegation can devastate a career’.
The lawyers went on to argue that Depp is the real victim of abuse in this case – routinely facing both physical and emotional abuse from Heard.
They claimed: “Heard is a profoundly troubled person who manipulates the people around her just like she manipulated Johnny Depp.”
The court heard that Depp would allegedly lock himself in the bathroom to escape Heard's fits of rage, and his assistant would routinely book a separate room for him when the pair travelled together so he would have somewhere to go if she had an outburst of anger.
After deciding to divorce, Depp allegedly resolved to deal with the separation ‘respectfully and discreetly’.
However, Heard caused the ‘final dramatic scene in the wreckage of their relationship’ and she ‘spun the story into one of domestic abuse’.
The jury heard that Depp’s ex-wife was ‘obsessed with her public image’, according to her former assistant and therefore proceeded to ‘make up more and more alleged incidents of abuse’, which she used ‘to raise her profile and advance her own career’.
After positioning herself as an ambassador on women’s rights during the Me Too movement, the court heard that this was not only a series of dramatic lies but also cruelty against her former husband.
“She has been preparing to give the performance of her life in this trial,” Depp’s lawyers finished.
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Topics: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Celebrity
Abbi Murray